Next Gen: Rise of the Villian
by Avatardragontrainer
Summary: China has been at peace for almost ten years. A new threat emerges, and this time, the threat is much closer to home than anyone imagines and threatens to tear everything the masters have worked on apart. Friend will turn on friend and brother will turn on brother. Blood will be spilled. (Warning Major characters may die)(Part two starts at chapter 18)
1. Intro

All Oc's belong to their respective creators' jweaks2016, Animation Universe2005, SpiritualLoneWolfXIII and though he's not mentioned by name Narutodagger920.

I own nothing but my own Oc's. Kung Fu Panda belongs to DreamWorks

Intro

Dai went to sleep after a busy day of training his students and found himself standing on a hill overlooking a grassy plane. It was dark and cloudy, like it might start raining any second.

In the distance, two massive armies clashed. He could hear the faint yells and screams of the soldiers.

Dai turned on the spot and saw his friends and family in front of him.

"What are you all doing here?" He asked, folding his arms and looking around. "Where am I? What's going on?"

No one answered him. He walked up to Tigress.

"Ti, what's going on?" He asked, putting a hand on her shoulder which went right through like she was a ghost.

As Dai watched they all slowly started fading out, he turned back to Tigress who now had a sad look on her face.

"Ti, what's wrong?"

He looked down at himself and saw himself fading out quickly, just like the others.

Dai saw Lupa fade out completely, only to be replaced with a gravestone with the word "traitor" written above it in what looked like blood.

He saw Dega fading out to be replaced with the word "murderer."

Dai was genuinely freaked out now.

Why would "murderer" be written on Dega's gravestone and "traitor" on Lupa's?

He saw Kai fading out as well, and Max and Mei-Ling joined her before Dai awoke with a gasp, in a cold sweat.

Trying to push thoughts of the dream out of his head, Dai got up and sat on the edge of the bed. He knew he'd just had a vision of some kind. Getting up he splashed some cold water on his face and returned to the bedroom and get ready for the day; he paused before grabbing the cane resting nearby. The elegant cane had been a gift from Tigress years ago, it was black and had a gold dragon wrapped around it and held a concealed blade. He left it and went to get breakfast.

It was clear what the vision was trying to tell him: his friends and family were in danger, but from what? China was at peace. There hadn't been any large scale conflict in almost ten years.

-Down the hall in Kai's room-

Kai stood on a battlefield bloodied and beaten. Around him laid his various friends and family. Kai looked down at the bloodied sword he held in one hand, and the blood covered staff he held in the other.

" _NO!"_

Kai awoke with a shout grabbing for the dagger he kept under his pillow, scanning around his room for any threats.

" _Just a nightmare,"_ He thought and laid back down again.

He could just see the sun peaking in through his window and got up. After an exhausting day of training yesterday, he'd fallen asleep in his clothes…again.

"It would be easy. Like swatting away a fly," Kai said to himself as he spun his dagger in his hand.

Kai's encounter with the rebels a few years ago had changed him; he was starting to question the actions of the Masters.

Kai shook the thought from his head once more and left his room to go downstairs for breakfast. Like the other students, Kai didn't have to live at his father's academy. He could spend the night at home if he so wished.

"Good morning Kai," His father greeted him.

"Morning dad," Kai replied back, sitting down at the table.

"Slept in your clothes again, huh?" Dai said seeing his son's rumpled clothing.

"Yeah," Kai sighed. "I had kind of a late night."

"Well I'm gonna head to the Academy," Dai stated, leaving. "I'll see you there."

Dai left the house and headed to his new Kung Fu Academy. Outside, the sun was just starting to peak over mountains. There was a slight chill in the air and shop owners were starting to open their stalls.

Over the last ten years or so, the sleepy village had turned into a large town with housing for the Masters.

The Jade Palace sat empty on the mountain after being shut down by Dai eight years ago. The students all lived and trained at Dai's Academy, or stayed at home if they so wished.

Dai arrived at the academy and pushed to doors open, entering the large courtyard that served as the training grounds

Scattered around were various pieces of training equipment, in the right corner was a massive boulder that was used for climbing. It was a mess.

Looking around, he found the source of the mess sleeping on one of the balance beams. An arm was hanging over the side.

" _Dega,"_ Dai thought, shaking his head and walking up to the tiger lion.

Dega was the son of Kiro Takimuro, one of Dai's friends. Reckless and impulsive to a fault, like his father at that age, his unpredictability made him dangerous in battle. One of Kiro's dead friends, Los, inhabited Dega's mind and constantly gave the Tiger-Lion advice. Bad advice, usually. He also was constantly demanding the student for food.

"DEGA TAKIMURO!" Dai yelled loudly, scaring the tiger lion awake.

"I surrender!" Dega yelled after waking up, falling off the balance beam and looking up at his teacher. "Oh! Hey, Master Nakamura."

Dai pointed at the mess.

"What?" Dega asked, looking over at the area, which looked like a war had blown through. "That?"

"Clean this mess up before training starts," Dai ordered and held out his hand. "Ah, _without_ your swords."

"Aw man, I'm never gonna get this done!" Dega whined, handing over his powered weapons.

"You best get started then," Dai scoffed before walking into the student barracks.

Dega looked at the mess once more before slapping his forehead and trudging over to start on his work. "We should get a janitor…"

Dai entered the barracks and the students all greeted him.

"Good morning Master!"

"Good morning everyone," Dai hummed, walking back down the hall. "I have no training for you today; you may have the day off. Spend it how you wish, but no one is to help Dega clean up outside."

"WHAT!?" Dega's voice was heard from the end of the hallway.

Dai whipped out Dega's swords and shot the young hero back out the door.

"That's not fair!" Dega yelled as he sailed through the door. "I want a lawyer…!"

Dai chuckled to himself and turned back to his students.

Protecting the Valley fell to two teams: Dai's which consisted of him, Tigress, Max, Kai, and Kiera and on Kiro's team were Kiro, Dega, Lupa, Mei Ling and Po.

Both Po and Max were gone at the moment, though. Po was filling in for his dad at the noodle shop and Max was off on a scouting mission for Dai in the north and wouldn't be back for a few more days.

"I would like to continue training, Master." Lupa, Dega's sister said. "I've got nothing better to do."

"NEVER DO!" Her brother shouted from outside.

"That's fine," Dai sighed, rolling his eyes.

She spent most of her time studying or training like Kiera, and had a fascination with weapons, like Dega. Another one of Kiro's dead friends, Sashi, inhabited Lupa's mind. The siblings' father, Kiro, had his old dead girlfriend, Song, stuck inside his head as well. Must run in the family. Dai was glad he didn't have to deal with that. It'd probably drive him up the wall.

"I'm gonna go train too," Kiera, Dai's daughter stated and left the barracks.

Kiera Nakamura was the spitting image of her mother, except for her blue eyes and was often teased by Dega about it.

"Welp, I'm gonna go have breakfast. See ya later!" Kai said, walking off towards the kitchen.

Kai was the adopted son of Dai and Tigress, one of the strongest members of the team and the oldest at twenty. His skill with a blade was only rivaled by his father's.

Dai left as well, intending to meditate on his vision, but ran into Tigress in the courtyard.

"Hey Ti," Dai said giving her a quick kiss.

"You left this behind," She said holding out the cane. "Are you okay?"

"No, I…had a vision last night," Dai admitted. "I think something is gonna happen and soon."

"Do we need to worry?" Tigress asked concerned.

"I don't know, maybe,"

-Meanwhile-

"No way Dega! You're not leeching off me," Kai said moving his bowl away from the Tiger Lion. "Not this time. Tell your ghost friend he can cook his own food."

Dega looked at Kai aghast. "Me? Cook? You know I can't! I burned noodles once! I'll starve! You're sentencing me to death here!"

"Tough," Kai said turning his back on Dega.

"I'll do anything, please!" Dega begged. "Just to shut Los up."

"Nope," Kai snorted, taking another loud sip of his soup.

"That's mean. I'm removing you from my last will and testament. You're evil," Dega huffed, folding his arms.

"Yep," Kai responded, chuckling evilly.

Dega grumbled and left the kitchen.

Not much of a chapter, I know, it's just an intro, the next one will be much longer and have more action, I promise. I hope I did okay with Dega and Lupa.


	2. New Elemental

New Elemental

* * *

Again all Oc's belong to their respective creators' jweaks2016, Animation Universe2005, SpiritualLoneWolfXIII and though he's not mentioned by name Narutodagger920.

I own nothing but my own Oc's. Kung Fu Panda belongs to Dreamworks

* * *

After the walking vacuum had left. Kai sat enjoying the rest of breakfast by himself in the kitchen until a goose flew in through the window and crashed into the table.

"Bandits in the outer village!" He said pointing out the window.

Kai stood up and raced back out to the courtyard

"Hey, we gotta go!" Kai said loudly interrupting his sister's training. "Bandits are attacking a village to the north!"

"Lupa! We gotta go!" She shouted over to the mountain cat, who was climbing the rock wall.

Lupa jumped down and joined them right away. Dega, however, was a little slower.

"What's going on?" He asked running over.

"Bandits are attacking one of the outer villages; we gotta help them," Kiera said.

"Can we stop for breakfast first?" Dega asked. "I'm still starving." He added glaring at Kai.

"No, tell Los he can wait," Kiera said sternly.

"But I'm hungry," He whined, followed by his stomach growling loudly. "Kai wouldn't share his soup."

"No," Kiera repeated. "Now let's go, we're wasting time."

"Just like her mother," Dega mumbled when Kiera's back was turned.

On the way out, the students ran into Master Nakamura.

"Where are you all going in such a hurry?" He asked.

"An outer village is being attacked; we're going to help," Kai said.

"Okay," Dai said. "That territory is dangerous. Be careful."

Dega summoned a rocket cart and the young heroes all piled on. Dega pulled the string, and they took off.

Dai continued to his meditation spot and sat down.

What had that vision been trying to tell him? It was clear his friends were in danger, but from what?

Slowing his breathing Dai entered his inner peace, and was suddenly bombarded with a series of images, they went by so fast he couldn't make them out. He saw two armies, but something was wrong, one side held what looked like Kidd's pistols only longer. The next image was the town in flames as soldiers marched through the streets holding banners. The final image was a map of China on fire with a blood red paw print over it.

Dai gasped and opened his eyes, panting.

What had he just seen?

No army he knew of carried weapons like that, an army armed with weapons like that could march across China unchallenged.

"There you are," Dai looked behind him and saw Kiro.

"Here I am," Dai said.

"Ti told me about the vision you had,"

"Yeah and I just had another," Dai said.

"What'd you see this time?" Kiro asked.

"I'm not sure, it went by too fast," Dai said rubbing his head.

"Do you know of any army that uses weapons like Kidd's?" Dai asked.

Kiro shook his head. "No, I thought he was the only one who had them,"

"Maybe someone's making more," Dai said.

"An entire army armed with those weapons could march across China virtually unchallenged," Kiro said. "It's like Lord Shen all over again, only worse,"

"Where are the students?"

"They left a while ago, why?" Kiro answered.

"Get the others, we're gotta get them," Dai said standing up.

-Meanwhile, with the young heroes-

The Heroes landed about five minutes later. From above, they could see the bandits ransacking the village.

"Tuck and roll!" Dega shouted as the cart disappeared.

The Heroes hit the ground and got to work defeating the bandits, making easy work out of them.

" _Something's wrong."_ Kai thought as they defeated the bandits _"This was too easy."_

As the Villagers and students cheered their victory, Kai stood on his own, looking around. He couldn't shake the feeling something was off.

"Guys, we better go!" Kai said over the celebration.

Dega looked up from the rice ball he was eating.

"What?" He asked his mouth full. "They offered, and I'm still hungry."

Kai rolled his eyes and shook his head, a glint of light off an arrow head caught his eye.

"AMBUSH!", he yelled just before the first arrow was fired.

"Where did these guys come from?" Dega said, his mouth still half full, as he deflected arrows with his swords.

"Doesn't matter," Kai said, drawing his staffs and driving them into the ground. Shocking the bandits, who were foolishly jumping off the rooftops.

"Incoming!" Kiera shouted, as more bandits streamed into the tiny Village.

Kai weighed the odds in his head and didn't like the results.

"Fall back," he said, while hitting a bandit and knocking off his helmet, "there are too many!"

"We can take them!" Dega said.

"No," Kiera replied, backing up as a spear landed at her feet. "Fall back to the bridge!"

The Heroes turned and ran towards the Thread of Hope.

Kai heard Lupa cry out and slid to a stop. Lupa was on all fours. An arrow was sticking out from her lower back.

"Keep going!" Kai yelled to the others and ran back for Lupa.

He ran up to Lupa and swung his staff like a baseball bat, sending the bandit flying back.

"He. Is. Outta. Here!" he yelled.

Two more attackers rushed at him. Kai quickly deployed his wrist blade, which was heavily poisoned. One cut from it and they'd be dead in seconds.

"What are you waiting for, you cowards! Attack them!" their leader ordered.

Kai took a defensive stance in front of Lupa.

Looking at the leader Kai recognized the symbol on his chest. It was of the Rebellion.

Kai thought his father had defeated this enemy years ago. Evidence to the contrary was standing in front of him.

The soldiers yelled and charged forward.

Kai bravely ran at them, shouting the war cry.

When he was within a few yards of the soldiers, Kai slammed his staffs into the ground shocking at least a dozen of them, at once.

The few remaining soldiers wisely turned tail and ran.

"Cowards," Kai snorted and placed his staffs back on his hip, retracting the wrist blade and went over to Lupa.

"Are you okay?" He asked kneeling next to her.

"I have an arrow in my butt, how would you feel!" She said back.

"Sorry," Kai said.

-Meanwhile-

Kiera slid to a stop at the bridge, finding in her way, a cloaked figure. Her father stood behind it, on the opposite side. The figure drew a sword and took a fighting stance in front of her.

Kiera ran at the figure, colliding head on. She grabbed his arm, as he swung the sword down at her head. She twisted his arm to the side, punching him in the chest, and knocked him to the side and ran onto the bridge.

Kiera heard it creaking loudly from her weight and froze. The old bridge wasn't going to hold.

"Kiera, get off the bridge! It's gonna fall!" Dai yelled to his daughter, as the Thread of Hope began to sway dangerously. He rushed forward, but Po grabbed him.

"No! That bridge falls, you both go down," He said holding the tiger back.

Kiera sprinted for the end of the bridge. She was almost there, when something grabbed her tail, bringing her down. She rolled, kicking him in the face.

"If I go down, you're coming with me!" he said, pinning her, slicing the rope with a knife, collapsing the bridge.

"Kiera!" Dai yelled breaking free from Po, rushing to the edge. He quickly looked over the side, eyes darting for his daughter in the fog

"I want a search party down there, now!" Dai ordered.

-Later-

Downriver from the bridge, a young elemental named Saber had paused for a drink. He had the power of lightning but had trouble controlling it. He was crouching by the river, when he spotted Kiera, floating in the water. He stood up, watching her float by.

Realizing she wasn't moving, he jumped into the river and swam out to her. Wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her back to shore. Once he got her ashore, he saw she was a teenage tigress and not breathing.

"Please don't kill me." he said, as he started trying to revive her.

After what seemed like forever, Kiera coughed up some water.

"Welcome back, kitty," Saber said, smiling.

"What did you call me?" Kiera growled, looking up at Saber.

"Kitty, take it easy I just saved your life," Saber said. "What were you doing in that river, anyway?"

"I fell off the bridge," Kiera said standing up only to fall to a crouch holding her ribs.

"Are you okay? Is there someplace I can take you?" Saber asked.

"The Valley of Peace," Kiera said through gritted teeth, straining against the pain.

Saber helped Kiera to her feet.

"What's your name?" Saber asked as Kiera leaned on him.

"Kiera Nakamura," Kiera said.

"Nice to meet you Kiera," Saber said smiling, showing off his large protruding teeth.

"You…You're a Sabertooth tiger." Kiera said.

"My names' Saber," Saber said making Kiera laugh.

"No really. What's your name?" she said.

"I don't know, everyone just calls me Saber, ever since I was a cub." he replied.

"Why?" Kiera asked, but Saber didn't answer.

-About a day later in the Academy kitchen-

"We searched the area around the Thread of Hope, including the river. We found no sign of Kiera." Kiro said. "She must have been swept away by the current."

Dai didn't answer him at first.

"Keep looking," he said after a moment. "She has to be somewhere."

"Right," Kiro said leaving.

"I should have gone searching for her," Dai said to Tigress scratching at the table with a claw.

"There's no way you could have known what was going to happen. That bridge was going down, regardless, it was ancient." Tigress said, quietly.

"That doesn't help," Dai growled.

"If anyone could survive that fall, it's our daughter," Tigress said.

-That night-

Saber banged on the door to the Nakamura house. A moment later, Dai answered and saw Saber holding Kiera up. She stumbled, nearly falling.

"Kiera!" he said, taking her from Saber.

"Ti, Kiera's back!" Dai yelled, laying his daughter on a nearby cot.

"I found her in the river. I think she's got a couple of broken ribs." Saber said.

"You carried her all they way from the Thread of Hope?" Tigress questioned, and Saber nodded.

"Run to the hospital and get a doctor," Dai ordered.

"Um….Sure, where is it?" Saber said, panicking.

Dai growled at him, as Saber ran out, clueless. As he entered the street, he searched for anyone that might give him directions.

"Excuse me, where's the hospital?" he asked a Tiger-Lion.

"Oh, it's just down the street. My mom works there….." Dega said, pointing.

"Ok, thanks," Saber said, running off, leaving Dega confused.

"I need help; it's Kiera!" Saber yelled urgently bursting into the hospital.

"What's wrong with her?" Mei Ling asked.

"Broken ribs, I think. I pulled her from the river." Saber said.

"Take me to her." Mei Ling said, following Saber out of the hospital.

"How long was she in the water?" Mei Ling asked, looking over Kiera.

"I don't know," Saber said. "A half hour, maybe…"

"Okay, thank you." Mei Ling said practically pushing Dai and Saber out of the room so she could examine Kiera.

Saber sat on a chair while Dai took to pacing back and forth.

Saber noticed Dai was glaring at him every time he walked past.

Saber chuckled nervously and looked away staring at his knees.

At six foot four, Dai was an imposing figure and stood an inch or so above Saber.

Mei Ling entered the room after looking at Kiera.

"Kiera has two broken ribs and a slight case of hypothermia. It's lucky you found her when you did, Saber. Any longer in the water and she could have died." she said.

"How is she now?" Dai asked.

"She's sleeping. You can see her when she wakes up, Grand Master." Mei Ling said. Saber's mouth dropped open.

" _No way! Kiera is Grand Master Nakamura's_ _ **Daughter**_ _?!"_ Saber's thoughts filled his head.

He had heard of Dai during his travels. But he never thought he'd meet him. He was a legend across China, for being the youngest Dragon Warrior ever chosen, putting down the Tiger Rebellion.

"Okay, thank you, Mei Ling," Dai said. "And as for you," he added, looking at Saber and eyeing him up…

Saber visibly tensed up under Dai's gaze.

"…thank you, for saving my daughter." he said.

Saber hesitated for a second, then took it. They both felt a zap of static, as Saber quickly withdrew his hand.

"I better go." he said, rushing out of the house.

" _Isn't_ _ **that**_ _interesting."_ Dai thought looking at his hand.

"Zang!"

Since the Palace had been closed, the goose had become Dai's messenger while the rest of the staff worked at the Academy.

"Yes, master?" The Goose said, appearing out of a room.

"I want you to fly out and find the Elemental Hazards. Tell them we've found a new Elemental."

"Yes, Master," Zang said, flying out of the house.

* * *

See I told you this chapter would have more action


	3. The Hazards

The Hazards

* * *

Again I own nothing but my own Oc's, if I did there'd be more Ti/Po in KFP3

* * *

"Saber, wait up!" Dai said running after the tiger.

"Why don't you stay the night? We've got extra room." He said catching up with him.

"Are you sure?" Saber asked.

"Yes," Dai said.

"Well…alright, since you're offering," Saber said.

"That's the spirit," Dai said walking back inside with Saber.

"You can have the spare bedroom next to Kiera's," He said.

"Thank you," Saber said ascending the stairs.

-Gong-Men City-

Takami Skyfang paused, panting looking at the burned training dummies around him. The other Hazards were milling around the Training Hall.

A flapping sound caught Takami's attention; he turned to see Zang.

"Zang, what are you doing here?" He asked wiping his face off with a towel.

"Master Nakamura wishes to see you. He says they found another Elemental." Zang said.

"Another Elemental?" Kidd asked stopping his training.

"Interesting," Takami said. "What sort of power does this elemental have?"

"Lightning, I believe," Zang said.

" _Why now?"_ Takami thought. _"China is at peace."_

"Ryo, Kidd and I will head to the Valley Of Peace and check it out," Takami said. "Fly back to the Valley and tell Master Nakamura we're on our way." He said to Zang.

-Morning-

When Saber first woke up he had no idea where he was; it took him a few seconds to figure it out. He lay there for awhile before getting up and going downstairs. Where he met Dai and Tigress, who were already awake, and eating breakfast.

He down sat somewhat awkwardly at the table, eating breakfast with the two Masters.

Looking at Tigress he saw how much she resembled her daughter, the only real difference between the two were the markings on her head, and Kiera had blue eyes, like her father.

"You sleep well?" Dai asked Saber, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, fine," Saber said he looked up and saw Kiera coming down the stairs. She wore a blue sleeveless vest cut to reveal her stomach and gray pants.

"Good Morning." She said sitting down next to Saber.

"Morning," Saber mumbled studying his food.

"Where's your brother?" Dai asked.

"Sleeping in again, I bet," Kiera said reaching for a bean bun.

"I'll wake him," Tigress said standing up, leaving the kitchen.

"Kai?" She said knocking on his door. "Kai, Breakfast is ready." She said pushing the door open to find the tiger's bed empty, the sheets all messed up.

" _Maybe he got up early to train."_ She thought leaving the room, going back downstairs.

"His room is empty." She said.

"Empty?" Dai asked.

"Maybe he's training with Lupa again. They do seem to spend a lot of time together lately," Tigress said.

-With the master-

After Kiera had been found he had gone back to the village, they'd been ambushed in and met the soldiers.

"I set that ambush up for you perfectly, and you blew it!" He yelled. "You couldn't even handle a couple of students, how are you gonna defeat the Masters?"

"Maybe if you'd helped we might have been able to do more…." The leader said.

"You know I can't give away my true alliance," The Master said interrupting the leader. "Not yet, it's too early."

"Three of the Elemental Hazards, Takami, Ryo and Kidd will be arriving in the Valley shortly; I trust you can handle _them_?"

"How do you know?"

"I have my sources," He said pulling out a tiny needle.

"What's that?" The leader asked.

"This is something I've been working on; it'll block their power, for a few seconds; stab any one of them with this, and during that time, they'll be helpless,"

"Yes, Master." The leader said taking the needle.

"Oh and if you fail me again, the Masters will be the least of your worries." The Master said over his shoulder and left.

-With the Hazards-

Takami sensed something was wrong as they entered the Valley, for one the road was empty which was odd, second he'd had the feeling they were being followed ever since they'd entered the Valley.

"Something's wrong," He said to Ryo as they walked.

A moment later Takami felt a sharp pain in his neck like he'd been bitten by something and pulled out a tiny needle.

"What on earth…?,"

A few seconds later his vision started to blur; his head hurt, he began to feel dizzy.

"Ambush!" He heard Kidd yell.

Takami tried to shoot his fire but only a small puff of flame came out, he looked at his paw confused; he tried again, again nothing.

What was going on? What had that needle been coated with?

Growing even more dizzy Takami kicked at one of the attackers connecting with his face; the attacker crumpled to the ground.

Turning on the spot Takami punched at another attacker but missed earning him a kick to the gut, he staggered backward falling to a knee, holding his head, growing sick; as the world spun around him, he tried to stand again but fell.

Thinking he had been injured, Ryo rushed over to Takami and helped him to his feet. The sudden change in height only made things worse for him, causing Takami's stomach to churn

"Don't you dare…." Ryo said right as Takami threw up, falling to his knees as Ryo dropped him.

Whatever happened to him next Takami couldn't remember, as he passed out on the ground.

He woke up in the Hospital a few hours later, feeling slightly better.

"What happened?" he asked seeing his friends gathered around his bed.

"You tell us, you collapsed during the ambush," Ryo said

"I did?" Takami asked.

"Yep," Dega said.

"What happened to you?"

"I don't know, I felt this pain in my neck and everything started going blurry, I got dizzy, couldn't use my fire either."

"Did this happen to either of you two?" Dai asked Ryo and Kidd, they both shook their heads.

Dai looked to Tigress, who raised her eyebrows.

"It's a drug," Dai said. "Designed to mess with your senses, someone's gone through the trouble of refining it into poison. I haven't seen it since….." Dai trailed off and left the hospital in a hurry.

"What was that about?" Takami asked.

Dega shrugged.

"Where's this new Elemental?" Ryo asked.

"Staying at Master Nakamura's house," Dega answered. "No, No! You stay here; I'll get him." He said when Takami tried to get up but failed falling to the floor.

Ryo helped him back onto the bed.

"I feel weak," Takami said.

Dega had just walked outside when he bumped into Saber.

"Oh, hey Saber I was just looking for you, Takami wants to see you." The Tiger-Lion said.

"Who?" The Sabertooth questioned.

"The Leader of the Elemental Hazards," Dega explained. "Master Nakamura called him here after you shocked him,"

"He just want's to see you can do, that's all," Dega assured him.

"What exactly can you do?" Takami asked.

"I can shoot Lightning, sort of," Saber admitted.

"Sort of?"

"It's kinda hard to do, so I don't bother, I just spark my paws and grab the person instead." Saber explained.

"Show me," Takami said.

"Uh sorry, what?" Saber asked

"Show me," Takami repeated indicating to Dega.

Dega was standing there watching but in his head…

" _Did we have bean buns or rice paddies for breakfast this morning?"_

" _We had noodles," Los said._

" _No, noodles were lunch."_

" _By the time you got up Lunch_ _ **was**_ _breakfast," Los argued._

" _Hey, I wake up at a decent time," Dega argued back._

"Dega!" Takami practically shouted.

"Huh, what?" Dega said snapping out of his thought.

"We need your help," Takami said.

"Sure, what do I do?" Dega asked.

"Just stand there," Takami said.

"And do what?" Dega asked.

"Nothing," Takami said as Saber sparked his paws.

"Oh no, you're not using me as a guinea pig," Dega said backing up.

"Either help or we'll tie you to a training dummy, again," Takami said.

"Alright," Dega grumbled and walked forward.

Saber sparked his paw and touched Dega on the shoulder.

"Ow!" He said recoiling back holding his shoulder; his fur was burned. "That hurt." He said rubbing his shoulder.

"Sorry," Saber said.

"It's gonna take forever for this fur to grow back," Dega whined.

"Effective, though,"

"Can you make it power powerful?" Takami asked.

"Not without a _serious_ drain on my energy," Saber said. "Last time I passed out from the drain."

"Okay, let's try to avoid that then," Takami said

"Let's try to avoid cooking me as well," Dega added. "Right?"

"Right?" He asked hopefully when they remained silent.

"No promises," Dai said entering the training hall.

"Master Nakamura," The three students all said, bowing.

"You don't have to do that," Dai said.

He'd never liked it when people bowed to him.

"So what have you learned?" He asked.

"Only that Saber can't use too much of his lightning, or he'll pass out," Takami said.

"I can channel it into a weapon, as long as it is made from steel," Saber added.

"Why steel?" Dai asked curiously.

"No idea, it just works better than iron," Saber said.

"Okay, try this," Dai said pulling a sword from the weapons rack, a Ninjato and handing it to Saber.

Saber took the weapon and infused it with his lightning, making it glow.

"Sweet," Dega commented.

Slightly disturbed Saber stopped and handed the weapon back to Dai.

"Keep it; It's your's," He said.

"I'm not all that great with a sword," Saber said.

"Keep it anyway," Dai said.

Saber slipped the sword into his belt.

"Now, what else can you do?" Dai asked.

"I'm not really a fighter, I prefer to avoid fighting if I can I…." He stopped when Kiro entered the training hall.

A series of images flashed before Saber ending with a burning house, a white tiger standing over him, bloody, glowing staff in hand.

"I…I gotta go," Saber said and hurried out of the training hall.

"What was that about?" Kiro asked as the Sabertooth rushed past him.

"No idea," Dai said going after the sabertooth.

"Saber, wait a second," He said catching up with him just outside the academy.

"What's going on?"

"That tiger, I've seen him before, the day my village was slaughtered," Saber said

"Impossible," Dai said flatly. "I've known Master Takimuro for years; there's no way he'd slaughter an entire village,"

"I still have the scars!" Saber exclaimed, lifting up his shirt revealing a long jagged scar running across his chest shoulder to hip.

"When exactly did this happen?" Dai asked as Saber lowered his shirt.

"During the rebellion about ten years ago, I was eight at the time," Saber said.

-Flashback, ten years ago-

Dai and Kiro had received information that a village to the north was protecting the last remnants of the Rebellion leadership and were sent along with about a thousand imperial soldiers to wipe them out.

The fight had escalated quickly making Dai think the villagers had been waiting for them; they were now separated from the main force, pinned in the village square by archers.

"Ugh we're not getting anywhere this way," Dai said ducking behind and catching an arrow on his shield, he still hadn't spotted the archers yet.

"Easy for you to say," Kiro said summoning a shield to block more arrows.

"Move up," Dai ordered.

"No thanks, I'd like to keep the blood in my body if possible," Kiro said.

Dai looked around for an alternate route.

"There," He said pointing to the houses across the street.

"Ready, go!" Dai yelled and sprinted across the street; Kiro followed him, Kiro crashed through the door and found himself face to face with a tiger; acting fast Kiro cut the Tiger down right there He sparked his staffs and moved on. He never saw the cub sitting the corner.

-End flashback-

" _Uh oh,"_ Dai thought.

"I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding," Dai said in an attempt to reassure the Sabertooth. "I'll talk to him,"

"Kiro!" Dai roared walking back into the training hall.

"I wasn't!" The white tiger said quickly, dropping the weapon he'd been playing with.

"We need to talk," Dai said seriously.

"This doesn't sound good," Kiro said.

* * *

This is my first time writing the Elemental Hazards, I hope I did okay


	4. Saber's Intentions

Saber's Intentions

"So what's this about?" Kiro asked.

"Remember during the rebellion; there was this little village that was caught between the two sides, we were sent there to take out the leader," Dai said

"Sort of," Kiro said. "I remember how insanely cold it was,"

"That was Saber's village," Dai said. "He was there; he saw his parents get killed,"

"Oh no," Kiro said.

* * *

-Meanwhile-

Saber had gone back to his room at the Academy and had just laid down when Dega crashed through the wall half covered in fluorescent green paint.

"MAX, YOUR DEAD!" He roared and got up.

"Uh Oh," Max said and ran off in a hurry.

"Get back here!" Dega yelled giving chase.

Saber got up and followed him outside to the courtyard and watched Dega chase Max around until he climbed the rock wall and sat on top, legs hanging over the side as Dega swiped at him.

"I think I felt a breeze on that one," Max said chuckling.

"Whoa sh…" Dega lost his grip and slammed into the ground. He groaned and stood, brushing himself off.

"Get down here!" He yelled from the ground, unwilling to climb back up the rock wall.

"No thanks," Max said laying down. "I'm perfectly comfortable right here," He said patting the large boulder.

Dega growled and left him.

"This gonna take forever to wash out," Dega pouted rubbing his arm.

"Green is really your color," Kai chuckled seeing the Tiger Lion.

"On the plus side, you'll be real easy to spot!" Max called after him, laughing.

"Shut up!" Dega said stomping off to the washroom.

"Max, come down here," Kai said once Dega had left.

Max jumped down from the boulder and ran over.

"What's up?" He asked then saw Saber.

"Who are you?" The cub asked.

"Max, this is Saber our newest addition," Kai explained.

"Whoa, you're a Sabertooth tiger!" Max said noticing the thicker pelt, protruding teeth, and shorter tail.

"Yeah," Saber said uncomfortably. "I'm just here to learn to control my lightning, so I can kill the people who slaughtered my village,"

"What happened?" Kai asked.

"It's difficult to remember; I was only eight at the time, but I remember a white tiger,"

"That's not much to go on," Kai said.

"I know, but it's all I got, I don't remember anything else," Saber said

"Either way, I'm sure the masters could help you track down the people responsible; just asked them for help, it's kinda what they do," Kai said.

"Yeah, I'll do that," Saber said seeing Master Nakamura.

"Master Nakamura!" Saber called out running after the white tiger.

"Hello Saber,"

"I was wondering if you could help me with something,"

"Sure, what is it?" Dai asked.

"I want to find the people who slaughtered my village; Kai said you could help,"

"What do you intend to do once you find these people?" Dai asked.

"I intend to kill them," Saber said darkly.

"Right," Dai said suddenly nervous. "You should know we don't kill out of revenge we…,"

Saber growled loudly.

"Then what's the point?!" He said loudly "You don't kill them, and they'll be right back killing people later!"

"I know, but it's how we've done things since the Jade Palace," Dai said.

"Then maybe it's time for a change," Saber said.

Overhearing this conversation the Master got an idea and grinned.

* * *

-That night, after training-

Saber was on his way back to the Nakamura household when a hooded figure peeled away from the wall and blocked his way; if he hadn't moved Saber might never have seen him.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Let's just say we have similar interests," The cloaked figure stated. "We both Lost something during the Rebellion,"

"I'm listening," Saber said.

"The Masters have no idea how many lives they ruined with their little war; they need to be shown the pain; that's what I intend to do, I 'm going to making them suffer," The Master said.

"But, I need help, I can't do this on my own, good help is…difficult, to find,"

"First, to prove your usefulness, I want you to travel to the Village where the students were ambushed and finish off those wolves; they're of no use to me anymore," The Master ordered.

"I think I can do that," Saber said.

"Meet me back here when it's done," The Master said and disappeared

* * *

-With the Master-

"Excellent work with The Hazards," He said walking up to the bandits camp.

"I have a new associate who will be arriving later today; you'll be taking your orders from him from now on,"

"Yes Master," The lead wolf said bowing. "We won't disappoint you,"

"I know you won't," The Master said and left.

* * *

-With Saber-

Saber arrived at the Village a few hours later to find the wolves sitting around a campfire celebrating, loudly.

The lead wolf noticed Saber and stopped.

Saber stood at the edge of the camp; there were about a dozen or so wolves he could see gathered around the fire.

"We await your orders, Master," The lead wolf said.

Saber smirked and drew the sword Dai had given him, infusing it with his power, making the wolves jumped backward in terror.

Saber let out a loud battle cry and rushed the lead wolf stabbing him through the chest before he had the chance to react. He pulled the sword out, and the wolf fell to the ground, dead.

By the time, the others started to react Saber had cut down two more wolves.

* * *

-A day later-

Dai kneeled down next to one of the wolves.

"You said these are the same wolves who ambushed you?" He asked Kai, who had discovered the scene.

"Yeah," Kai said

"I think they're the some ones who ambushed us on the road too," Takami said rolling a dead wolf over, the flesh around the stab wound was charred, but none of the rest of the wolf was unharmed.

"Strange," He said.

"Very strange," He said standing up.

"Dad take a look at this!" Kiera said.

"What is it?" Dai asked running up.

"Look," Kiera said holding out a piece of paper with a blood red tiger paw print on it.

"It was pinned to one of the wolves, have you ever seen that symbol before?" Kiera asked.

"No, but it was in my vision," Dai said looking at the paper.

"We're dealing with a new type of criminal," Dai said.

"He's cleaning up, before he acts," Kai said.

"What?"

"He didn't need the wolves anymore, so he killed them," Kai said matter-of-factly.

"I'll talk to my contacts in the criminal world," Dai said "Someone has to know something,"

* * *

-That night-

"I'm gonna go for a walk," Dai announced abruptly leaving the house, grabbing his cloak.

After wondering around town for awhile, avoiding anyone he came across he walked up an unassuming looking building and knocked.

"Password?" The guard on the other side asked.

Dai gave the password and entered the illegal fight club.

Scanning the crowd he found who he was looking for, a 19-year-old Mountain Lion named Shan, who was currently in the ring fighting a boar about twice his size.

He waited and watched the fight until Shan was declared the winner and got his attention by lowering his hood, there was no mistaking the Tiger Master for anyone else.

Shan saw him nodded in the direction of the locker room

"Master Nakamura," He greeted Dai wiping his face off.

"How's business?" Dai asked.

"Since you started to keep the other masters and guards off my back, excellent," Shan said with a grin, tossing Dai a heavy coin purse.

"This weeks' take, but that's not why you're here is it?" He said turning back around

"No, a group of wolves was attacked the other night, the attacker left this behind," Dai said showing Shan the paw print.

"You recognize it?"

"No, can't say I do, but I can ask around for you," Shan said. "I can say it's not paint; it's blood,"

"Blood?" Dai asked.

"Likely from one of the wolves in question," Shan said.

"The next fight is about to start, why don't you stick around for a few rounds?"

"I don't know," Dai said. "I'm not the fighter I used to be,"

"That's because you don't practice anymore," Shan said poking the tiger on the chest.

"I guess it's could hurt to stay for a round or two," Dai said. "But I'm not fighting, I'm only watching, this is illegal,"

"And yet, here we both are," Shan said.

After Dai had left the room, the master appeared from around a corner; he didn't bother hiding his identity from the Mountain Lion.

"You think he knows?" Shan asked.

"Maybe," The Master answered.

"So what do we do?" Shan asked

"Feed him false information, try to steer him in the wrong direction; I can't have him figuring out my plan it's too early,"

"Yes Master,"

"I'm gonna head back to town before anyone notices I'm missing,"

After the Master and Dai had left Shan threw the symbol into the trash and left the locker room.

* * *

"Where have you been?" Tigress asked as Dai walked through the door.

"Um…nowhere, I went for a walk like I said," Dai said.

"You went to that fight club didn't you?" She accused.

"Maybe, but how'd you know?" Dai asked.

"Shan is the only criminal in the world you'd go to for help," Tigress said.

"Okay, you caught me, I needed information from him," Dai said.

"You know I don't like it when you go to that club," Tigress said. "What if someone recognizes you?"

"Of course, they'll know who I am; I'm the one who lets them operate in the Valley," Dai said

Tigress pinched the bridge of her nose.

"That's not the point," She said frustrated

"Well, don't keep us in suspense, what'd he say?" Kai asked.

"I gave him the symbol, he said he'd look into it," Dai said. "All we can do now is wait,"

"Good enough for me," Kai said and headed upstairs to his room. "I'll see you all in the morning,"

"Hey, where's Saber?" Dai asked.

"Patroling the town," Tigress said. "He should be back soon,"

"I'm gonna look for him," Dai said.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Tigress said.

"Ti, relax; I'll be fine," Dai said heading out the door again.

* * *

-With Saber-

"You warned those wolves that I was coming," He said to the Master.

"Of course, I didn't want it to be too easy for you," He replied.

"Did you leave the message like I said?"

"Yes,"

"Good, I have a friend who will keep the Master's off our back for a time, We need to act quickly before our window closes," The Master said. "I better go," He said suddenly and ran off.

* * *

-With Dai, around the same time-

Dai walked around the town searching for Saber, at this time of night, the streets were pretty empty he passed one or two people but didn't see anyone else, it was kinda creepy he thought, the fog rolling in didn't help much either.

His ears twitched at the sound of someone running just out of his vision.

He saw a dark figure dart across the street in front of him making his pause.

"Saber?" He asked.

"Right here," The Sabertooth said from next to Dai, making the tiger master jump a little.

"Did you see that?" Dai asked.

"See what?" Saber said back trying to see through the fog.

"Nothing," Dai said turning to head back home.

* * *

It looks like the Master isn't the only one up to something, Dai's got his hand in some pretty fishy stuff as well.


	5. Making a Move

Making a Move

* * *

First off I want to thank everyone for the reviews and views and for making Rise of the Villain making it, by far, my most popular story on Fanfiction last month.

Also, I own nothing but my own Oc's

* * *

-With the Master-

"I want you to spread the rumor my father is taking bribes from criminals," The Master instructed Shan

"You know he never keeps any of that money," Shan said. "He always gives it away,"

"Regardless, once the people find out they'll turn on him," The Master said.

"Make sure word reaches the Emperor,"

"Yes, sir," Shan said.

-Two days later-

Dai was walking through town with Tigress; people were looking at him funny, why?

He stopped when he saw a large group of Imperial soldiers marching through town and stopped.

"Dai Nakamura?" The Soldier leading them asked

"Yes," Dai said hesitantly

"You are under arrest for corruption,"

"What!?" Tigress yelled loudly enough to make Dai wince, and his ear hurt. "He never kept that money for himself, he always gives it away,"

"Our informant tells us Dai took bribes from both Fung's gang and the Mountain Lion Shan who runs an illegal fight club in the valley,"

Dai's eyes narrowed.

" _The Master,"_ He thought.

"Leave," He said to the soldiers placing his hand on his Daisho. "This town and its occupants are under my protection,"

"What are you doing?" Tigress hissed in his ear.

"They're with the Master," Dai said back.

"The Master? Are you sure?" Tigress asked.

"Positive," Dai growled.

"Lay down your weapons and come quietly,"

"You'll have to get through me first," Tigress growled standing in front of Dai.

"Me too," Kiro said walking up next to Dai.

"Then you'll be counted amongst this traitor!" The lead Soldier spat pointing at Dai.

"CHARGE!"

Inside the Academy, Dega burst into the training hall.

"Master Nakamura is fighting Imperial soldiers in the street!" He yelled. "We gotta help,"

"I'm sure dad can handle it," Kai said when Kiera stopped her training to join Dega.

"We should still help," Saber said.

"Fine," Kai said, "Its been awhile since I had a good fight anyway,"

To everyone's surprise, the Soldiers were gaining ground on the older Masters, until the younger heroes showed up. Kai threw his dagger impaling a soldier in the chest, killing him.

"I think it's time you all left," He said as they took fighting stances, sparking their power weapons, by the old masters.

"That's my boy, defend your old man!" Kiro cheered

"This is far from over!" The lead soldier said, "You will _all_ pay for your crimes!"

"What was that about?" Dega asked when the soldiers had left.

"I think their working with the Master, he sent them, to arrest me," Dai explained "His reach is much further than I thought, we need to be more careful,"

-With The Master-

"That could have gone better," Shan said when they met up at Shan's fight club later that night.

"I never expected the soldiers to arrest my father,"

"You didn't?" Shan asked.

"No, that would have been a bonus, nothing more,"

So, what was the point?" Saber asked.

"The point is, the people will start to doubt my father's ability now. Shan, I want you to return to the town and drive home that point, attack one of the Heroes, I don't care which; just do some damage," The Master ordered.

"I think I can do that, I've got just the person in mind too; Takimuro's daughter Lupa," Shan said. "She's still in the Infirmary,"

"That'll work," The Master said. "Sneak in tonight, but _do not_ kill her; this meant to be a message to the masters," Kai ordered

-That night-

Lupa groaned and rolled over on her hospital bed; she'd been in the infirmary since an arrow had wounded her and she was board, she wanted to do something. Getting up, walking on her paw pads she left the Infirmary, heading back to her room.

Just as she reached the door, someone grabbed her from behind

Lupa yelled and, but a hand clamped over her mouth silencing her. She fought the attacker off until he covered her face with a rag, soon she felt her strength drain away, and she collapsed to the floor.

" _Lupa?"_

" _Lupa?!"_

Shan arrived at the academy that morning having stayed at a hotel that night so he could rest before speaking with Master Nakamura

"What have you found out so far?" Dai asked.

"I asked everyone I knew; no one knows anything about The Master, he just came out of nowhere and started taking over China's criminal enterprise," Shan said. "By either buying out or killing the competition, you name it, he has a hand in it,"

"Do you at least know what species he is?" Tigress asked.

"From the pawprint, I'd say a cat of some kind, I think," Shan said.

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down," Dai said.

"The few people who did have information said one word; Bloodmoon," Shan said

"Whats…?" Dai started to ask but was interrupted when Kai burst into the room

"Lupa's been attacked!" He yelled.

"What!? When?" Kiro asked looking up from the map

"I don't know; I went to check on her and found her on the floor of the infirmary," Kai explained as they raced back to the infirmary.

"Lupa, Lupa can you hear me?" Kiro asked kneeling next to his daughter's bed.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I don't know," Kai answered. "I found her on the floor; it looked like she'd been attacked from behind by someone,"

"The Master," Kiro growled.

Lupa's eyes cracked open, and she saw her dad and Kai standing over her.

"Dad? What happened?"

"You were attacked, do you remember anything about your attacker?" Kiro asked.

"No, he attacked me from behind, I never saw his face," Lupa said.

"Did he hurt you?"

"No, no I'm fine," Lupa said sitting up. "He just knocked me out with a funny smelling rag,"

"That's kinda odd," Kai commented. "Why not kill you; he clearly had the chance?"

Kiro glared sideways at Dai's son, but he had a very good point.

"I don't know," Lupa said.

-With The Master-

"It is done, Master," Shan said kneeling in front of The Master.

"Good, the seeds of discord have been planted," The Master replied. "Now all we need to do is sit back and wait; I'll begin spreading rumor the masters can no longer protect the citizens of the valley, fear will do the rest,"

"In the meantime, I'm moving our operation up to the old Jade Palace,"

-One month later-

"Nothing, nothing for an entire month," Dai said as he watched Saber training with Takami. "It's strange,"

Saber was armed with a metal rod he could channel his lightning into to simulate a sword while Takami was unarmed. Saber had made great progress over the last month or so, but he still needed work.

"The Citizens are growing nervous, they're scared," Tigress said. As Saber swung the 'Sword' at Takami, missing by only inches, the Bengal Tiger backpedaled and threw a flaming punch at Saber's head.

"Their not the only one's," Dai said.

"Have you gotten any word from Shan?" Tigress asked as Saber rolled to dodge a fireball and shot lightning back at the Bengal Tiger.

He could now shoot his lightning, but it was still a very large drain on his stamina, he fell to a knee, out of breath.

"Nothing, like I said," Dai answered as Saber stood back up, panting from the exertion.

"You want to keep going?" Takami asked worriedly.

"Yes," Saber growled, picking the sword up attacking Takami once more.

"Maybe it was just a random attack," Tigress said.

"No, I mean _nothing,_ according to Shan; all of his contacts in China's criminal world have gone silent," Dai said.

"All of them?"

Dai nodded "I've sent Max and Dega to investigate a few of their hideouts; they should be back later today,"

-With Max and Dega-

The two cautiously approached Temutai's hideout as the warlord had a short temper. There were still a distance from the camp they should have come across at least one scout by now.

"Where are they?" Max asked.

Dega entered the camp first and told Max to hang back.

"Max, stay put, you don't want to see this," He said

"What is it?" The Tiger Cub asked, looking past Dega only to be pushed back by the Tiger-Lion.

The entire camp had been slaughtered, bodies were everywhere, blood pooled on the ground.

"What on earth?" Dega wondered aloud searching the camp for any survivors.

The Tiger-lion walked up to Temutai's throne and saw the red pawprint on the back, it was still wet.

"Paint would have dried by now," he thought aloud, touching the paw-print.

"Max, we better get going,"

"Max?" Dega asked turning around

The Tiger cub was gone.

"Max?" Dega called out drawing his power swords, the Cub had been right behind him a moment ago.

"Max, Buddy?" Dega called out walking through the camp. "Mac attack?"

After a little more searching Dega came across Max's unconscious body lying on the ground the signature paw print next to him.

Dega picked Max up carried him quickly back to the Academy, Dai was still watching Saber train with Takami, all three of them stopped when they saw Dega enter carrying the unconscious Max in his arms.

"What happened?"Dai asked rushing over to the Tiger-Lion, taking Max from his arms.

"I don't know, I turned my back for a few seconds and…" Dega said.

"I'll take Max to the infirmary," Dai said.

"Max? Max, can you hear me?" Dai said laying the Cub on a bed.

Max groaned in response and woke up.

"What happened? My head hurts," Max said

"You were attacked, do you remember anything?" Dai asked.

"Dega and I were investigating Temutai's camp, we separated to look for clues, that's the last thing I remember, sorry," Max said.

Dai scratched his head confused.

"Whoever did this could have easily killed Max, why spare him?" He asked.

"You said you didn't hear or see anything?" Dai asked Dega.

"Not a thing," Dega said. "Sorry,"

Dai sighed heavily.

"Alright, thanks, Dega,"

"It's like trying to catch a ghost," He said.

"Oh, I almost forgot, this was next to Max," Dega added, it almost forgetting, handing Dai the piece of paper with the paw print on.

"It was painted on Temutai's throne as well," Dega said,

Dai took the piece of paper from Dega and crumpled it up, tossing it against the wall growling and stormed out of the infirmary.

"What was that about?" Dega asked picking up the piece of paper, unfolding it.

"I don't know," Takami answered, "He seemed upset about something,"

"No kidding," Dega said looking at the paper in his hand, uncrumpling it, looking it over for anything unusual.

"What does it mean?" Dega wondered aloud.

"It means death," Dai said re-entering the Infirmary with Kiro, Tigress, and Po.

"Someone is gonna try and kill Max? Not cool," Dega said.

"Not try, _will,_ " Dai said "Someone _will_ kill Max if we don't stop them,"

"Search the entire Academy for any more of these symbols," Dai ordered Dega. "If you find anything let me or the other Masters know _immediately_ ,"

"Yes, Master," Dega replie 


	6. Warnings

Warnings

Continuation of Making a Move

I own nothing but my own Oc's

* * *

-With the Master-

"It's time to escalate our attacks, sneak into the Academies barracks and plant bombs in the barracks and training hall," The Master ordered Shan,

"Use this, it'll help you get in," He added handing the Mountain Lion a shift stone and shifted forms into Kiro.

"I can do that," He said leaving the Fight Club with the packages

-With the Heroes-

"Master Nakamura, We found something," Dega said after about an hour of searching "In the Barracks,"

"Take me there," Dai ordered.

He stopped when he saw red paw prints painted above each of their doors.

"What does it mean?" Dega asked seeing the symbol on his door.

"It means, we're all marked for death," Dai said reaching up, touching the paint.

"It's fresh," He said. "No than less than an hour old,"

"So we look for a guy with a lot of red paint," Dega said.

"It's not paint," Dai said taking a sniff, licking it. "It's blood,"

"Blood? So it's a vampire then, Max, find a wooden stake, Saber get some silver, I'll find some garlic," The Tiger-lion said.

"I seriously doubt it's a vampire," Kiera said.

"Oh mock all you want, you'll be sorry when he's sucking the blood from your…,"

"Okay then," Kai said interrupting Dega. "Thank you, Dega, for that very… _vivid_ description,"

"You're welcome," Dega said smiling clearly missing the sarcasm.

"Enough!" Dai said. "Come on, we have a very real criminal to catch,"

"How'd he even get into the barracks?" Saber asked.

"That…is a great question for another day," Kai said. "Right now, we should focus on finding this guy,"

"What makes you think it's a guy?" Kiera asked.

They found the intruder in the training hall when he saw them he ran. They chased the intruder through town to a building and saw him slip in through an open window.

They followed him inside, it was pitch black in the building so Kai sparked one of his staffs to provide some light.

"Let there be light," he said sparking the weapon.

The intruder stood at the end of the hallway dressed in all black with a black hooded cloak.

"That's not creepy at all," Dega commented.

The figure tilted it's head and pushed back it's cloak revealing a belt of Kunai.

"Move!" Kiera said pushing Dega to the side a moment before the figure started throwing the knives.

Dega's left arm was cut, but he was alive.

When they looked back, the figure was gone.

"Where'd he go?" Kai asked waving his staff around.

A clatter made them turn around and see a dark hooded figure quickly sprint across the hallway in front of them

"Please tell me you all just saw that?" Dega said

"I don't know what I just saw," Kiera said.

"How'd he get from one end of the building to the other so quickly?" Kai asked.

"You and Kai go after this one, Saber and Lupa and I will go after the other, Dega stay here and make sure he doesn't try to double back," Kiera said.

"Okay, sure I'll do that…by myself," Dega said as the others all ran off, leaving him alone in the dark until he activated his swords for some light.

For a good while, it was deathly quiet.

" _Behind you!"_ Los suddenly shouted, and Dega jumped and whirled around in time to catch a dagger on his sword.

The Tiger-Lion disengaged and backed up as a Kunai sliced across his chest, every time Dega tried to summon something with his swords the figure managed to stop him. Eventually, he was forced to abandon the power weapons altogether and resorted to hand to hand combat.

As they fought, Dega got a hold of the figure's hood and pulled it off…

"Dad?" Shocked, Dega stopped his attack the figure took advantage of Dega's surprise and knocked him to the floor and sprinted away shedding the cloak as he went.

"What happened Dega? You had him?!" Kai practically yelled running up to the shocked Tiger-Lion.

"I…"

"If anyone dies because of this, I'm holding you personally responsible," Dai said

"He's gone," Kiera said walking back up to the group. "Why'd you let him escape?"

"I didn't I…"

"Did you at least get a look at his face?" Saber asked.

"Yeah…It was my Dad," Dega said quietly.

The others were speechless.

"Why would Kiro…?" Kiera asked.

"He wouldn't," Dai said.

The Heroes returned to the Academy in shock, after the students went to bed Dai went into the kitchen and found Kiro sitting at the table with Tigress, eating a bean bun. He growled and grabbed the white tiger and threw him against the wall.

"What are you…?" Kiro tried to ask, but Dai cut him off.

"Dai, let him go," Tigress said getting up.

"No, He's the one who broke into the Academy and left those symbols, He probably attacked Lupa and Max as well," Dai accused.

"You've finally lost it haven't you? Why on earth would I attack my own daughter? Or Max for that matter?" Kiro asked.

"Dega saw you in the warehouse we searched, he fought you!" Dai said not letting go of Kiro

"How long have had this delusion that you're sane?"

"Kiro, is this true?" Tigress asked.

"No! I've been here the whole time,"

"It's easy enough to prove, Kiro lift up your shirt," Dai said.

"Why would I do that?" Kiro asked.

"Kiro, just do it," Tigress said

Grumbling Kiro lifted his shirt up, showing no signs of injury.

"Happy now?"

"Dega saw you, in the old warehouse, he described you perfectly," Dai said to Kiro still holding him against the wall. "Why would he have any reason to lie,"

"Dai let him go," Tigress said.

Dai growled but let go of his friend

-that morning-

"Has she been at this all night?" Saber asked walking out to the courtyard yawning, seeing the sun peeking over the mountain.

"Yeah," Dega said. "Ever since the incident in the warehouse yesterday, she never seems to stop,"

"She needs to relax and take a break," Saber said.

"I'm not sure she knows how," Dega said as they watched Kiera train.

Saber sighed and walked up to the tigress as she pummeled the training dummies.

"Kiera?" He said putting a hand on her shoulder.

She whirled around, and punched Saber on the jaw, knocking him to the ground.

"Saber, I'm sorry! I didn't…" She said alarmed.

"No, it's okay, I can take a punch," the Sabertooth said standing up, rubbing his jaw where she'd hit him.

"Nice punch, though, Kiera, you need to take a rest, this isn't healthy. When was the last time you slept?" He asked.

"I can't, not when I know he's out there," Kiera said going back to assaulting the training dummy.

"You're not doing yourself any favors by doing this; You need to rest," Saber said sternly.

Kiera paused and sighed. "Okay," She said.

"But what if something happens?"

"Don't worry about it," Saber said leading Kiera to her room.

"But…"

"If it makes you feel better, I'm right across the hall," Saber said sitting Kiera on the bed.

"Why don't you stay here?" Kiera asked

"I'm not sure how your father would feel about that," Saber said "I'll just stay in the hallway, you need anything just shout,"

-Time Skip, that morning-

Dai went to Kiera's room to wake her up when he slid the door open, he saw her lying on her bed, curled up with Saber, his arm around her waist. He let it go for about five seconds before clearing his throat loudly enough to wake Kiera.

"Dad!" Kiera exclaimed pushing Saber off the bed, onto the floor, waking him

"Ow! What'd you do that for…" He said rubbing his head, he paused when he saw Master Nakamura standing in the doorway.

"Uh oh," He said.

"Saber, we need to talk, now," Dai said his eyes narrowing and left.

" _That's it, I'm gonna die today,"_ Saber thought following the tiger master.

In the hallway Kiro passed by the two, he seemed in a hurry Dai paused and turned around having just seen Kiro in the kitchen, he also noticed the absence of the Tiger's signature weapons.

" _Strange,"_ He thought.

" _Wait a…"_

Dai never got the chance to finish his thought as an explosion tore the Academy barracks wing apart, throwing him and Saber to the floor.

In town, the Master heard the explosion and saw the smoke rise into the air and smiled to himself, he waited for a few seconds, then another explosion ripped through the training hall, and people started running and screaming in a panic.

" _Perfect,"_ He thought and disappeared into the crowd.

* * *

Whoa…wait, Kiro is a bad guy!? (Not really) Can anyone be trusted anymore?


	7. First Strike

First Strike

Continuation of Making a Move

I own nothing except my own Oc's

*Warning this chapter contains character death and semi-graphic descriptions of injury*

* * *

Dai coughed and pushed the debris off him and stood.

"Saber, are you okay?" He asked between coughs.

"Saber?" He said more loudly

"Here," The Sabertooth replied from the smoke. "What happened?" He asked as Dai helped him to his feet

"Kiera!" Dai realized suddenly and ran back to his daughter's room.

"Kiera, are you okay?" He asked trying to open the door, but it was jammed from the other side.

"Dad!" Kiera coughed

"Can you open the door from your side?"

"It's jammed," Kiera said.

"Just stay calm," Dai said trying to force the door open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Dad!" Kiera gasped. "I can't breathe!"

"Saber! Come over here and help me get this door open!" Dai yelled

Together, Dai and Saber were able to break down Kiera's door and enter the smoke-filled room.

"Kiera!" Saber exclaimed seeing her coughing on the floor and rushed to her side. As he got her to her feet part of the burning ceiling fell near them.

"We need to get out of here! Before the whole place comes down on us!" Dai said from the hallway.

Dai and Saber carried Kiera out of the burning Academy to the courtyard, outside they saw how much damage had been done, Tigress, Dega, Kiro, Lupa and Po all had an injury. Kiro looked the worse off, he had blood running down his forehead, he sat on the ground as Lupa held a bandage to his head. Tigress was lying on the ground, she had a cut on the side of her head and looked unconscious, Po was sitting next to her holding her hand.

Dega was sitting next to his father, he had blood running down the side of his head and looked in shock

Dai looked at the Training Hall, which had a gaping hole blown in the side.

"Where's everyone else?" Dai asked.

"The Hazards are still in the Training Hall," Lupa said.

Dai looked at the firestorm the Training Hall had become, from the outside it looked like no one could have possibly survived the raging inferno.

But he raced towards it anyway with Saber

-With the Master-

"Perfect, absolutely perfect," The Master thought watching from a rooftop as the Academy burned.

"We sent a strong message with this attack, Master," Shan said joining him.

"Yes, we did," The Master replied.

-With the Heroes-

Dai and Saber broke into the Training Hall, inside in was an inferno, Saber couldn't see anything with all the smoke. As a result, he practically tripped on Takami, who was lying on the floor, half his body was burned.

"I found Takami!" He yelled out to Dai lifting the Tiger to his feet.

The tiger was badly burned on his right side and yelled in pain as Saber picked him up.

"Sorry," Saber apologized as he carried him towards the exit.

Saber's foot went through a floor board making him fall and drop Takami, who yelled in pain.

Saber heard a loud creaking from above and looked up, the ceiling was on fire! About to collapse.

He pulled his foot out and grabbed Takami, once more headed for the exit, but paused, where was Dai?

"Dai?!" He called out loudly as he could, while trying not to cough.

Part of the ceiling came down in front of him, he brought his arm up to shield himself, he had to get out of here now! Before the entire place came down on his head.

At that moment, Dai emerged from the smoke with Kidd leaning on his shoulder, the whole right side of the wolves head was bleeding.

"Did you find Ryo?" He asked, and Saber shook his head not being able to answer.

More of the ceiling came down.

"We gotta get out of here!" Dai said, "Before the building collapses!"

"What about Ryo?!" Saber asked.

"Take Kidd, and get out of here, I'll go back for Ryo," Dai said.

"But…"

"Don't argue!" Dai said and disappeared back into the inferno leaping over the flames.

Saber wasn't going to argue and exited the burning Training Hall through the blast hole and collapsed, coughing and hacking shortly after.

"Are you alright? Kiera asked rushing forward. "Where's my Dad?" She asked not seeing him emerge with Saber.

"Still inside trying to find Ryo," Saber said pointing at the burning Training Hall.

They waited until Dai emerged from the inferno with Ryo leaning against him, a second later the Training Hall collapsed behind them.

-Chinese border-

The Master, Shan, and Saber were waiting a few miles south of the border for The Master's smuggler

"Where is this guy?" Saber asked impatiently from his perch in the tree "It's been hours,"

"Patience, Saber," The Master said from below.

Before long they all heard the sound of cart wheels and the Monkey appeared pulling a cart full of what looked like rice.

"You're late," The Master said seeing the Monkey

"Blame the border guards; their checks are growing more through," The Primate stated halting in front of Kai, Shan, and Saber with his cart.

Saber jumped down from the tree and looked at the contents of the cart.

"Rice?" He asked cutting a bag open. "That's what's we've been waiting out here for?"

"No," The Master said taking the bag off, under it was a smugglers compartment, with Muskets in it. They were a brand new design, from Europe.

"And I gonna want double my usual payment, smuggling these weapons into China wasn't easy, I had to use all of my bride money," The Monkey said as Saber examined a pistol.

"You'll get your payment," The Master said taking one of the muskets out of the cart, examining it.

"Saber,"

Saber put the pistol down and walked up to the primate.

"Do you have my…" He was cut short as Saber stabbed him through the chest and dropped him to the ground.

"Yes, these will do nicely," The Master said aiming the musket "Imagine, an entire army equipped with these muskets, unstoppable, invincible, sweeping across China. No one can stand in our way,"

"Get these ready to be shipped out; I want them ready for action as soon as possible," The Master said tossing the musket to Shan.

"Yes, sir," He answered.

"Saber, go back to the Valley and get the Masters to fight amongst each other, they'll be easier to defeat if they're divided,"

"I can do that," Saber said.

-Back with the Heroes, a few days later-

The remaining Masters all sat around a table in Dai's kitchen, the mood was somber, no one said anything, the loss of Monkey and Mantis in the bombing had taken a heavy toll. The Master had used a type of incendiary, a firebomb designed to burn, by the time Monkey and Mantis had been found in the Training Hall rubble they were already dead.

And Dai felt partly responsible.

"It's not your fault," Tigress said after awhile.

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Dai said.

"That Academy was supposed to be the safest place in the Valley," Dai said. "And now Monkey and Mantis are dead, and we're no closer to figuring out who this guy is,"

"We know he used a shift stone to take Kiro's form to get into the Academy," Saber said.

That was a good idea, Dai hadn't thought of that, it would explain why he had seen Kiro in two different places at once, then another thought occurred to him.

"Wait, how'd you know he used a shift stone?" He asked Saber

"Uh, Dega suggested it," Saber said "Because he saw his father in the warehouse,"

"Wait, so this guy could be anyone?" Kiro asked

Everyone looked at each other.

"Now, wait everyone let's just remain calm," Kai said his hand hovering over his staffs, Kiro and Dai were all doing the same.

"Is it you?" Dai asked Kiro.

"No, is it you?" Kiro asked back

"I don't remember seeing you in the academy during the bombing," Kiro said pointing at Kai.

"Hey, yeah," Kiera said. "Where were you?"

"I had something to do in town," Kai explained.

"Right, and you just happened to leave right before the bombs went off," Kiro.

"My son didn't bomb the Academy," Dai said to Kiro.

"If I recall, my father said he saw you leave the Barracks just before the bomb went off," Kai said, drawing his staffs, sparking them.

"Why would I bomb the Academy? Monkey and Mantis were my friends!" He said back.

 _"_ _This is getting dangerous, I need to leave before they all start attacking each other,"_ The Master thought and slowly started to back out of the room. The masters were too busy to notice he'd left.

"Wait, Where'd Kai go?" Po asked noticing the missing tiger.

-with the Master-

"I'm moving our operations to the old Palace," He announced to Shan and Saber later that day.

"The one up on the Mountain?" Saber asked.

"The Old Jade Palace? Nice," Shan said "I always wanted to live up there,"

-later-

Under the guise of searching for clues, the three students trekked up the old Palace stairs with Master Nakamura.

"I'm not sure what you expect to find up here," He said when they reached the gate.

"Think about it, it's the only place in the valley we haven't searched yet," Kai said as Dai pushed the old wooden doors open.

In the ten years or so nature had started to reclaim the Palace, plant life grew up through the sparring grounds, the wall was cracked or falling down

"I remember walking through here the first time," Dai said. "Of corse your mother had to half carry me cause I was half-conscious at the time,"

"It was just her and me back then, we were younger than you, fifteen, sixteen; we thought we were invincible," Dai said.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, don't break anything," Dai said and left.

"Kinda hard to break something that's already broken," Saber said picking up an old broken sword, tossing it aside.

The three students went into the old Hall of Heroes

"This place is creepy," Saber commented as they walked toward the end of the Hall, at the end was the now empty moon pool, above it the Dragon statue where the Dragon Scroll would have been.

"The Dragon Scroll, was said to be a source of unlimited power," Kai said looking up at the statue. "What a bunch of nonsense," He said before moving off.

The three students spent the rest of the day and part of the night repairing the Palace as best they could, they stayed in the old barracks until morning when Dai came looking for them.

"You spent the night up here?" He asked. "I see you fixed it up a bit too, I'm impressed,"

"Did you find anything in your search?"

"Not really," Kai said. "It was a long shot anyway,"

"Alright, we need you three back in the Valley," Dai said.

"Yes, Master," Saber said and left with Kai and Shan, but Dai grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Don't think I've forgotten about finding you in Kiera's room Saber, the three of us are gonna have a nice long chat at home," Dai said as Saber walked past him.

Saber swallowed, he didn't like the sound of that very much.

"Hey, Kai you didn't you say Kiera had a boyfriend once, What happened to him?" Saber asked catching up with him

"Dunno, he just sorta vanished one day," Kai said shrugging.

 _"_ _I am so doomed,"_ Saber thought walking down the Palace stairs.

* * *

Somehow I think Dai had something to do with that boy disappearing. I'll try to make the next chapter more light-hearted. Also, my first ever hint of Ti/Po


	8. Gongmen City

Gong-men City

First off I want to acknowledge my readers from abroad, it's always cool to see people read my stories from other countries.

I do apologize for the time between chapters. Unfortunately, it's only going to get longer as I have a lot of projects going on behind the scenes, I'm a full-time science fiction writer, as well as Fanfiction.

As always I do not own Kung Fu Panda or Dreamworks.

* * *

"Dad, there's a big party in Gong-men City, to celebrate the peace in China, can we go?" Kiera asked her father.

"Well…okay," Dai said after a moment of thinking. "But I want you to be careful, Gong-men City can be dangerous,"

"Thanks, Dad!" Kiera said running off to join the others.

Tigress folded her arms over her chest and gave Dai a look.

"What?" He asked.

Despite the fact, Dai and Tigress were no longer together Kiera was still her daughter.

"Kiera's eighteen, she can take care of herself," Dai said.

"That's not the point," Tigress said. "I still can't believe you let her walk around like that, with her stomach exposed that much,"

"Besides, it's only during the summer, when it's hot out," Dai countered.

Tigress groaned.

"Again, that's not the point," She said. "Someone could try and take advantage of her,"

At this Dai chuckled.

"The last boy who tried ended up in the hospital; remember?" Dai said.

-With Kiera-

"Alright, my dad said we can to to this party," Kiera announced to the other students.

"Sweet! I'm gonna go pack!" Dega said, rushing out of the room.

"Awsome!" Kai added also rushing to go pack.

Two hours later the young Heroes were all gathered in the Academy courtyard.

"Man, I can't wait! This party is gonna be so epic!" Dega cheered summoning a rocket cart for them to ride to the City.

"Relax, it's not for a couple more days yet," Kiera said.

"Yeah, besides, it's the after party that's fun," Kai said.

"What are they showing?" Kiera asked as they entered the theater.

"A reenactment of the battle for Gong-Men City," Dega explained, reading the program as the young heroes took their seats. "It's the twenty year anniversary, I think,"

"Tomorrow is Sage's Siege, the battle our father fought in, we gotta come see that!" Dega said excitedly, examining the program.

"Lord Shen?" Kai asked sitting next to the tiger-lion "Cause, I wouldn't really call that a battle," He commented, eating a handful of popcorn "Master Po got lucky, simple as that,"

"No, it's the one our father fought in," Kiera added.

" _Your_ father," Kai said back

"Shh, it's about to start," Lupa hissed.

-After the show-

"I knew Dad always considered the battle a loss, but I never knew he actually died," Kiera said as they exited the theater.

"That's a part of the story you don't hear too often," Kai said as they walked through the street.

"Why not?" Saber asked.

"It's not very legendary, is it? The new Dragon Warrior gets killed in his first battle," Kai said.

"Master Nakamura was nowhere near ready for a battle that large at his age, at the time,"

"How old was he anyway?" Saber asked.

"Sixteen, I think," Kai said. "Master Tigress was about fifteen,"

"The worst part is that, after the battle instead of being hailed as a Hero, he was ridiculed for being too young and inexperienced, for not being the true Dragon Warrior," Kai said. "So, he resigned,"

"You can do that?" Saber asked.

"I guess so," Kai said. "Master Nakamura did,"

The Students continued on to a club and went straight to the front of the line.

"VIP access baby!" Dega cheered excitedly.

Inside their ears were blasted by loud music.

The teens took their seats and ordered some drinks. About half-way through hers, Kiera started feeling kind odd.

"Hey, you okay?" Saber asked.

"I'm...I'm fine," Kiera said her speech slightly slurred.

"Guy's I think we'd better get Kiera home," He said to the others.

"But we just got here!" Dega protested over the music.

"Your gonna have a hard time getting Lupa to leave," Kai said spinning Dega around, pointing to the dance floor, where Lupa was dancing closely with another mountain cat.

Dega got up growling but Kai stopped him, sitting him back on his stool.

"Relax, you can still see light between them," He said.

"That's my sister," Dega hissed.

"Guy's I hate to interrupt but we should really go," Saber said.

"Fine," Dega said getting up to get Lupa.

"No, you stay put," Kai said pushing Dega back down. "I'll get Lupa,"

Once outside, Kiera put her hand on her head and groaned

"You okay? Kai asked.

"Yeah...I'm fine," Kiera said. "Let's just go home," She said, feeling tired, by the time they got home Kiera was barely standing and needed Kai and Saber's help to walk.

To everyone's surprise, and horror, they found Master Tigress inside, she didn't look too happy to see Kiera in her drugged state.

"Um, we can explain," Saber said still holding Kiera upright.

"You'd better," Tigress growled. "Right now,"

"Um, okay, we went to a club, Kiera said she felt like she was feeling kinda strange," Saber explained. "She then started to feel dizzy,"

"Sounds like the work of the Master," Tigress said a moment of thought.

"I don't think so, I think someone simply spiked her drink," Kai said.

"YOU WERE OUT DRINKING!?" Tigress shouted loudly enough to shake the dust from the ceiling.

"Maybe…" Saber mumbled.

"Wait, before you kill us, it's not what you think," Kai said. "It was a party, everyone was drinking,"

"Bad choice of words Kai," Saber said.

"Except Kiera," He added quickly as Tigress's growl deepened.

"Her drink didn't have alcohol in it, I don't think," Kai said.

Tigress facepalmed.

"Just take her to her room," She said. "You father and I are going to have a discussion about this when he gets here,"

"Dads here?" Kai asked. "Who's protecting the valley?"

"Po and the rest of the Five can handle things while we're gone," Tigress said as Kai and Dega carried Kiera up the stairs.

"If I'm not needed I'm gonna leave," Saber said heading for the door.

"Uh no you don't," Tigress said. "Dai still wants to talk to you,"

Saber froze by the door.

"Nothing happened!" He said turning to face Tigress.

"Good, and you can tell Dai that when he gets here," She said.

Saber was convinced he was about to be murdered, from the way Master Nakamura was looking at him.

"What exactly happened in the club?" He asked.

"Well, we got there, ordered our drinks, about halfway through her's, Kiera started acting kinda funny like she was drunk or something,"

"Do you remember anyone acting odd?" Dai asked.

"No…wait, there was a Panther or a Jaguar, he kept looking in our direction, at Kiera and Lupa," Saber said.

"Was Lupa acting strangely at all?" Dai asked.

"No," Saber said.

"That Panther is our suspect," Dai said. "Let's go,"

"Right now?" Saber asked.

"Yes now," Dai said practically pushing Saber out the door.

Dai and Saber walked back to the bar and went inside.

"Can I help you two?" The bartender asked wiping out a glass.

"My friend was drugged at this bar, by a panther, we want to know who he is, or where he went afterward," Saber said.

"Oh well uh, I'm sorry, but that's not really my…"

Saber growled loudly at him.

"…Problem," He finished.

"Your gonna have a bigger problem in a second if you don't tell us where he went," Saber growled sparking his paws, grabbing the bartender by the front of his apron, pinning him against the counter.

"Hey, what is this?! All I do is serve people their drinks!"

"Answer our question," Dai said as Saber held the bartender in place against the counter.

"Okay, fine! Yeah, I saw the panther you're talking about, but I don't know where he went!" The bartender said as Saber held his sparking paw close to his face.

"Do you know who he is?" Saber asked.

"No! Let me go!"

"Your lying," Dai said.

"Okay, okay!" The bartender said. "I've seen him in here a couple times before, but I don't know his name,"

"He comes back, let us know," Dai said. "Let's go, Saber,"

"Are you really expecting him to come back?" Saber asked once they'd left the bar.

"No, Panthers are rare enough, it should be easy to find him," Dai said.

After a long silence between the two, Dai finally spoke again.

"What happened between you and Kiera?" He asked.

"Nothing! We just fell asleep next to each other by accident, I swear!" Saber said.

"Saber, relax," Dai said. "I'm not angry,"

"Y…your not?" Saber asked surprised.

"Nah, I've seen the way you two look at each other over the last month. If you have feelings for my daughter I'm not gonna get in the way, you seem like a good person,"

Saber chuckled nervously.

"You have my blessing if you seek it," Dai said. "But, if you break her heart, I'll kill you and bury you in the mountains above the valley, like last time, understand?"

"Yes, sir, perfectly," Saber said swallowing.

"Good, I can handle this, why don't you head back home," Dai said.

"Are you sure?" Saber asked.

"I'm sure," Dai said.

-With the Master-

"Did you spike Kiera's drink like I asked?"

"Yes, Master," The Panther said. "But she's incredibly resilient, it didn't work,"

"I'm aware of that fact, that's why I asked, I can't stand incompetence,"

"With all due respect Master, we should wait, the effects may take longer due to her biology," The Panther said. "This drug is still untested,"

"Very well, we'll wait," The Master said.

"Until then, I have a party to crash," The Master said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Shan asked. "That party will be packed with China's greatest heroes,"

"Exactly, it'll prove once and for all to the Masters that we're not afraid of them," The Master said. "That we're no idle threat, they can choose to ignore,"

-With Saber-

After walking home, Saber went up to Kiera's room to check on her, he knocked on her door and entered, she was laying on her side, her back to him, on her bed, asleep, she seemed to be sleeping peacefully so he let her sleep and headed back downstairs.

"How long has Kiera been asleep?" He asked Tigress.

"Since Kai and Dega took her into her room, why?" Tigress asked.

"Just curious," Saber said. "Where is Kai anyway?"

"He said he was getting medicine for Kiera," Tigress said.

"Okay," Saber said.

Dai's house in Gong-Men city had a basement that had been converted to a small training area, that's where Saber went.

* * *

Well, that's it for me, at least for a while.

Why do I get the feeling a body is gonna show up in the next chapter? And Dai is gonna be the reason behind it?

I had to add a small nod to Sage's Siege by jweaks2016 in there give it a look.


	9. Build up

Build up

* * *

I do not own anything aside from my own Oc's

Sometimes it seems like the universe itself is conspiring against me to keep me from writing this, throwing everything possible in my path.

Well… Screw you universe! I'm doin' this anyway! So get ready people, it's about to kick off.

*This chapter contains some torture and character death*

* * *

Dai stood there and watched Saber walk home and waited a few more seconds before heading off in the opposite direction in search of the Panther.

It didn't take him that long before he spotted the Panther in a marketplace, keeping his distance; Dai shadowed him back to his home.

Pulling a mask over his lower face to cover it, he walked up to the Panther's door and kicked it open, the Panther inside whirled around, drawing a dagger.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked.

"Where did you get that drug?" Dai demanded clearing the distance between them, pinning the Panther against a wall, making him drop the dagger. "I wanna know ho sold it to you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The Panther said.

"Wrong answer," Dai said tossing the Panther across the room, into a wall.

"Okay, okay! I have I guy I meet up with who sold it to me," The Panther said

"Who?"

The Panther clamped his mouth shut.

"I don't know his name, he calls himself The Master," The Panther said.

Dai frowned, the Master was in Gong-Men City? Why?

The Panther produced a concealed blade and slashed Dai across the face, making him yell and let go.

The Panther pushed Dai back and tried to escape out a window, but Dai threw his Kunai at him hitting the center of his back making him fall back.

Dai smirked and went over to him and pinned the Panther under his knee and pulled the Kunai out.

"What's The Master doing in the City?" He demanded.

"I'll never tell you anything!" The Panther snarled trying to throw Dai off his back.

"Mmm, wrong answer," Dai said picking the panther up, body slamming him onto a table, breaking it.

"You ready to talk yet?" Dai asked.

"I'll never tell you a thing!" The Panther spat.

"That's a shame," Dai said removing a poker from the fire.

"What are you gonna do with that?" The Panther asked fearfully.

"Take a guess," Dai said spinning the red hot poker in his hand.

* * *

-Later-

* * *

"You will all perish, and The Master shall rise!" The Panther gasped before dying, a moment later Dai saw a symbol on the wall and scrambled out the door just as the house erupted in flames.

* * *

-With the master-

"It's time to stop playing games, capture the member of the Elemental Hazards named Faith and Bring her to me, alive," The Master instructed Shan and Saber.

"Yes, Master," They both said.

"When you're done Shan, travel back to the Valley and get my army ready for the assault,"

"Yes, Sir," Shan said. "What about you?"

"I have one more thing to deal with in this City, then I'll join you," The Master said.

* * *

-With Faith-

Faith had just exited the training hall and was intending to go right to bed, but on the way to the barracks, she felt something sting the back of her neck.

"Ouch!"

She put a hand to her neck and felt around, finding a tiny needle, a moment later she started to feel disoriented.

At about the same time a figure appeared behind her and grabbed her from behind, She lashed out with an elbow strike making him let go. She turned around and was relieved to see saw Ryo standing behind her holding his stomach, instead of an unknown attacker.

"Ryo?" She asked. "What are you doing?"

The Wolf straightened up and growled at her.

"Ryo?" She asked again, backing up slightly, bumping into Takami.

"Takami? What's going on?" She asked, looking at the Bengal Tiger confused.

Without warning Takami lashed out with a claw fist, knocking Faith back.

"What are you two doing? Have you lost you're minds?" Faith asked backing up as her two teammates advanced towards her.

She tried to use her power, but she couldn't seem to access it, her eyes widened, she'd been drugged.

No sooner did she have that realization when a sudden bout of dizziness brought her to her knees as her stomach threatened to empty itself of it's contents.

Seeing the advantage, Takami rushed forward and delivered a strong upper cut to Faith's chin, knocking her out and onto her back. The Bengal Tiger stood there for a moment.

"See that wasn't so hard, now was it," He said shifting back into Shan, picking up Faith's unconscious body.

"Speak for yourself, she didn't elbow you in the gut," Saber said rubbing his stomach where Faith had hit him.

"Quit you're whining, let's get her back to The Master," Shan said throwing Faith over his shoulder.

* * *

-With the young Heroes-

"Aren't you coming?" Kiera asked Kai and Saber.

"Nah, I've got some other things to do first," Kai said.

"Same here, I gotta practice with my lightning," Saber said.

"Alright, let's go, guys," Kiera said. "We want to get a good seat,"

"I can't believe I've never seen this!" Dega said excitedly, taking his seat for the reenactment of Sage's Siege. "This battle made our father a legend almost overnight,"

"I think it took a little more than that," Lupa said.

"It's starting," Kiera said.

About three-quarters of the way through during the final battle's climax, something, happened the wall behind the stage blew up.

"I don't think that's a part of the reenactment," Dega said standing as three figures marched through the hole, all three bore The Master's symbol of their chest.

"Definitely not," Kiera said also standing, seeing about a dozen or so of the Master's supporters amongst the crowd.

The Master himself was holding a member of the Elemental Hazards, Faith, by the back of her shirt she looked like she'd been beaten up pretty good.

"Let go of me!" She yelled trying to access her power, she could tell it was there, but it was just out of her reach.

"You are going to be the start of something amazing," The Master said forcing Faith to her knees, drawing a sword, placing it across Faith's neck. "This is a message for Master Nakamura, and the so-called masters across China; run and hide, because the day of vengeance is coming, and no one, not the Furious Five, not your students, or your Dragon Warrior attack dog can save you,"

"We gotta do something, he's gonna kill her!" Dega said alarmed, drawing and sparking his swords.

On stage, The Master saw the glow of Dega's swords and smirked drawing the sword across Faith's neck and kicked her to the stage.

"NO!"

Dega was about ready to rush the stage, but Kiera held him back,

"No, look," She said pointing around at The Master's supporters scattered in the crowd.

By the time Dega wrestled free of Kiera, Faith had bled out, and the Master was gone.

"Why'd you hold me back like that?! We could have saved her!" Dega yelled.

"If I hadn't, there'd be two bodies on that stage, not just one," Kiera said.

Dega growled at her.

"How'd he capture Faith anyway?" Lupa asked.

"I don't know," Kiera said.

Word of the attack and Faith's public execution spread through Gong-Men City like a wildfire.

The mood at the Palace was somber, Takami, Ryo, and Kidd had traveled back to the city for their friend's funeral to be held in a few days.

"It had to have been someone she knew," Takami stated. "Or she would have attacked them,"

"Or she was drugged, like you and Kiera," Kai interjected. "Think about it, it makes sense, the two of you were test runs for this drug," He said when Takami looked at him sideways.

"It does," Kiera said agreeing with Kai. "She could have easily used her power to overpower her attackers and escape, but she never did,"

"Who is this guy anyway?" Takami asked.

"We…don't know," Dai said.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Kiro asked seeing the fresh scar on Dai's face.

"I got attacked by that Panther," Dai said. "Guy pulled a hidden blade on me, at least I still have my good eye,"

"Let me get this straight, this guy has been harassing you for two months, and you still don't know who he is?" Takami asked.

"We know he's a Tiger, we can narrow it down that far from the paw prints," Tigress said.

"Honestly, I didn't think he was much of a threat until today," Dai said.

Takami clenched his fists, he growling deeply.

"Then what good are you?" He seethed.

"From now on everything else stops, I want everyone trying to figure out who this guy is," Dai ordered.

"What about the big celebration? It's tomorrow," Tigress asked.

"Nothing, continue as planned," Dai said.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Tigress asked.

* * *

-Back at the Valley of Peace-

Shan walked into The Master's encampment a few miles outside the Valley of Peace, where well over a thousand soldiers awaited his command to attack the Town.

"Is everything ready?" He asked one of the Soldiers in command.

"Yes, sir, we're just finishing up preparations on the rocket launchers,"

"Excellent," Shan said examining one of the launchers.

The weapons were a brand new invention from Korea, called the Hwacha, it consisted of a two-wheeled cart carrying a board filled with holes into which the singijeon (A type of fire-arrow rocket,) were inserted and had the ability to fire up to 200 singijeon at once.

Kai's army was equipped with seven of them, for a total of 1400 arrows.

"These will tear the Masters apart," Shan said smiling.

"What about the muskets?" Shen asked.

"Also ready," The Commander said.

"Perfect, make sure you're soldiers are ready, Bloodmoon approaches," Shan said.

* * *

I got a few more Chapters yet, until the climax, Bloodmoon parts one and two. I'll try to up load both of those on the same day if I can.

I saw the Hwacha on T.V and thought "That looks like a weapon Kai would use." So there it is, I got the information on it off Wikipedia


	10. Banquet

Banquet

* * *

I don't often get writer's block, but when I do, it lasts two weeks and is followed by a torrent of ideas.

(The choices Dai and Kiera make in this chapter _will_ affect what happens later in the story)

* * *

-With The Master-

The Master tossed a dagger from hand to hand as he waited patiently for Dai to show up with his answer.

"I don't think he's gonna show," Shan, who had returned to the City after preparing The Master's soldiers said.

"Patience, Shan," The Master said. "He'll be here; he knows the stakes if he doesn't show,"

A couple of minutes later The Master was proven correct as Dai entered the warehouse.

"Well, what's your answer?" The Master asked, not wasting any time.

"No," Dai said simply

"No?" The Master asked.

"That's what I said," Dai said. "I won't kill Tigress, not for you, not for anyone,"

"That's…disappointing, I was really hoping we could avoid more needless bloodshed," The Master said sounding disappointed and left with his guards.

-With the master, later-

"Are you sure this is a wise decision?"

"Yes," The Master said over looking a map of the City. "My spies tell me that the Master's banquet is being held here," He said pointing to a Hotel, one of the most expensive ones in Gong-Men City.

"The students will be here," He said pointing to another building several blocks away. "But, the students won't be arriving until later tonight. When they are inducted as Masters, that's our window to strike,"

"Once we hit the Master's banquet, it'll surely alert the students, and they'll come running, that's where you come in Saber, you need to keep them busy as long as you can while the rest of us attack the banquet," The Master said.

"I think I can manage that," Saber said.

"Alright," The Master said.

* * *

-With the Masters-

"Are you sure this celebration is a good idea?" Tigress asked walking up next to Dai as he greeted the guests.

"I'm sure, people need this; it's a distraction," Dai said leaning on his cane slightly as he watched Kung Fu Masters stream into the Hotel's Dining area, from all over China.

"I thought you didn't like that thing," Tigress said seeing the cane-weapon.

"Okay, so it's growing on me a bit," Dai said.

* * *

-With the young heroes-

"Man, this gonna be one epic party!" Dega said excitedly, practically bouncing up and down.

"Yeah, it's been so long since I've been able to relax," Kiera said.

"For you relaxing, is running up and down the old Palace stairs about fifty times," Dega joked making Kiera smack him hard on the shoulder.

"Ow Ow, kidding!" He said rubbing his shoulder.

"I agree, after everything that's happened it'll be nice to unwind and just be normal for a night," Lupa said

"Define normal," Saber said.

The Sabertooth was sitting away from everyone else; he didn't sound too happy about the party.

"You're not coming?" Kiera asked.

"No, you guys go, have fun, I'll just stay here," Saber said.

"Kai, are you coming?" Kiera asked.

"Nah, you guys go ahead, "I'll catch up, I've got something I need to do first," Kai said

Kiera just shrugged and left with the others.

* * *

-With the Masters-

Dai was never a big fan of these banquets, even as he sat there he looked uncomfortable to Tigress.

"I hate these," He said

"This was _your_ idea," Kiro reminded him, his mouth full of food.

"Yeah…" Dai said absentmindedly.

"What's wrong?" Tigress asked recognizing the tone in his voice.

"It's something The Master said; He said 'Enjoy the Banquet, while you still can,'" Dai said.

"He's just messing with your head," Kiro said.

"I don't know, maybe," Dai said, still sounding distracted.

A moment later, the doors to the banquet hall exploded open sending deadly shrapnel all over, those not killed by the explosion were quickly cut down by The Master and his followers as they streamed into the large hall.

Dai and the others all got to their feet, ready to fight, the Master smirked and calmly stepped aside giving his soldiers armed with muskets clear shots at the Masters.

"Fire," He said calmly.

* * *

-With the young heroes-

Kiera stopped dancing when she heard the thud of a distant explosion over the music and looked towards the exit, she caught Lupa's eye and nodded towards the door.

"Sorry, I gotta go," Kiera said to the tiger she'd been dancing with, and raced to the door with the others, leaving the tiger confused.

Once outside, they saw the smoke coming from the hotel the Master's banquet was being held at.

"There!" Kiera shouted, pointing.

The students ran forward but didn't get too far, as a figure jumped down on the from above, quickly knocking Dega into a wall and engaged Lupa.

Kiera stopped and turned around to face the new threat. Something about his fighting style, the way he spun his sword in his hand seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't place why.

* * *

-With The Masters-

Dai, Tigress, and Kiro barely got out of the way in time. Kiro jumped on the long table and summoned a large table, hurling it at The Master and his supporters, only to see it get sliced in half, by the Master.

"Okay, that's new," He said ducking as more musket balls flew past him. He summoned a shield, that seemed to work until Dai grabbed him and pulled him off the table.

"Are you crazy?" He asked.

"Sort of," Kiro said making Dai roll his eyes.

Dai unsheathed his Katana and got ready to vault over the table with the others.

"Wait until they come over the top," The Master said.

-With the young heroes, the same time-

"Keep going, I got this!" Kiera shouted to Dega and Lupa.

The hooded figure slowly stood back up and faced Kiera, gowling.

"Go!" Kiera shouted once more, and Dega and Lupa ran off.

Kiera yelled and attacked the hooded figure. "Show your face, you coward!" she yelled punching and kicking the hooded figure. Every punch, and kick she threw he managed to block like he knew her every move.

He hastily drew a sword, which Kiera batted away and kicked the figure in the leg and punched him in the face, but he remained upright, panting heavily taking a defensive stance.

Again, something about his stance seemed familiar to Kiera.

"RAH!" She yelled rushing at him again, intent on killing him.

The hooded figure backpedaled frantically, trying to avoid Kiera's claws but she hit him multiple times in the chest, knocking him back into a wall, where she spin kicked him to the ground. Where he remained, taking raspy breaths.

Kiera kneeled down pulling the mask and hood off intent on seeing her attacker and gasped.

"Sur…prise," Saber coughed rolling to face Kiera.

"Bet you didn't…see that coming," He said coughing.

"Saber I'm sorry, I…" Kiera said kneeling next to her friend.

"I think I'm gonna rest now," Saber said closing his eyes.

"Saber, Saber!" Kiera cried shaking the sabertooth.

* * *

-With the Maters-

"Remember, those Muskets only have one shot," Dai said and let out a loud war cry, vaulting over the table with Tigress and Kiro, they landed, and Kiro summoned a shield to protect them from the first volley, and they rushed forward fighting their way through The Master's soldiers.

Dai engaged The Master, something seemed very familiar about his fighting style to him, was he an ex-student at the Academy? That would explain a lot.

As he fought, Dai tried to see under the hand painted mask and hood.

"Your gonna pay for the people you've murdered!" The Master said attempting to and nearly disarming Dai.

That caused more red flags to go up in Dai's mind, not many people could do that, not even Tigress or Kiro, only…

Dai's eyes widened as he came to the realization, he paused, giving the Master the chance to cut him across the chest with His sword, knocking the Tiger Master to the floor.

The Master spun his sword in his hand preparing to deliver the final blow, when a plate crashed into his head, knocking him off to the side.

He turned, holding his face and saw the young heroes all standing in the doorway.

"Surrender, you're outnumbered," Kiera said.

Seeing not only the Students but the Elemental Hazards as well. The Master lowered his weapon, pulling out a small smoke bomb.

"You win this round but this has only just begun," He said, "Soon, you will _all die_!" and detonated the smoke bomb, by the time the smoke cleared he was gone.

"Dad!" Kiera exclaimed rushing to her wounded father, helping him up with Tigress's help.

"I…think I know who The Master is, or at least who's helping him," He said.

Kiera wasn't sure if she should tell her father about Saber's betrayal.

"Who?" Tigress asked.

"Not here, wait until we get back to the Valley," Dai said.

After making sure, her Father got back home safely, Kiera left to go and try and find Saber.

* * *

-With Kiera-

She went back to the scene of their earlier fight but didn't see the Sabertooth anywhere.

"Saber?" she asked looking around.

"Saber?" She asked a little more loudly

"Here," A voice finally answered hoarsely.

"Saber?" Kiera asked moving towards the voice.

"Over here Kiera," That voice, Kiera recognized as Saber's, she walked over and saw him on the ground, leaning against the wall.

Kiera went over to him and kneeled down next to the wounded Sabertooth, in the daylight, she could see the severity of his injuries more clearly, and she felt horrible for what she had done.

"Saber, I'm so sorry," She said.

"I'll live…maybe," Saber said attempting to stand but falling back to the ground.

"Let me help," Kiera said.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Saber said as Kiera helped him to his feet.

"Not really," Kiera said letting Saber lean against her, he was heavier than she thought he'd be.

With Kiera's help, Saber managed to make it all the way back to the house, where she had to kick the door open because her hands were full. At the sound Dai and Tigress both rushed over, ready to fight but relaxed when they saw Kiera and Saber.

"Saber!"

"I found him like this," Kiera explained, letting her father take Saber from her.

"What happened?" Dai asked.

"I was ambushed last night," Saber lied. "By The Master and a couple of his supporters,"

"And you fought them off?" Tigress questioned.

"Sort of…" Saber said coughing.

"Ti, help me get him upstairs," Dai said.

With Tigress's help, Dai carried Saber upstairs and set him on the bed.

"Stay with him," He said to Kiera and left the room.

* * *

As soon as I can come up with a name for him and a reason for it, that Tiger Kiera was dancing with will make another appearance. Another chapter should be up relatively soon, now that my writer's block is over.


	11. Suspicion

Suspicion

Well...so much for a regular update schedule, but I'm gonna still try to update on weekends.

As always, I do not own Kung Fu Panda.

* * *

-Back in the Valley of Peace-

"Why is everyone looking at us strange?" Dega asked as the young Heroes walked through town, towards the Academy.

"I don't know, but it's unnerving," Kiera said trying to ignore the looks the people were giving them.

"They're glaring at us like we're criminals," Lupa said as they walked past a small group of villagers.

SPLAT!

Lupa stumbled as a tomato hit the back of her head causing her to stumble.

"Who threw that?!" Kai demanded whirling around.

"Lupa, you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, nothing a shower won't take care of," Lupa answered standing back up.

* * *

-After training-

"I believe Kai may be working with The Master," Dai said after a moment. "No one except Kai and Me knows that move he used to disarm me, he must have taught it to The Master."

"Are you sure?" Kiro asked.

"No, that's why, Lupa, I have an assignment for you. I want you to keep an eye on Kai," Dai said. "But keep your distance, don't let him know you're following him." He warned.

"You really suspect Kai is working with the Master?" Kiera asked

"Well, maybe, I don't know," Dai answered. "That's why I want Lupa to keep an eye on him."

"I can keep an eye on Kai," Lupa said. "Not a problem."

Lupa left the Academy and followed Kai around town all day, she saw nothing suspicious, until that night when she was about to call it a day she saw sneak out of his room and head for the old Palace.

" _Strange, why would he go up there, it's been empty for years,"_ She thought.

" _Perhaps he's meeting with the Master,"_ Sashi said.

Lupa followed Kai up to the old Palace, to the top of the stairs but didn't see Kai anywhere, but the doors to the old Hall of Heroes were open slightly, cautiously she walked in.

She had got to the middle of the Hall before the doors slammed shut behind her.

" _It's a trap!"_ Sashi yelled as Lupa whirled around and raced to the door, trying to open it, but it was locked from the other side.

Lupa heard someone drop to the floor behind her and turned around and back against the door.

" _We're not alone here,"_ Sashi said.

"Who's there?" Lupa asked. "Show yourself!"

A hooded and cloaked figure stepped into the low light.

"My father ordered you to follow me here, didn't he?" The figure asked his voice muffled by his mask.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lupa said.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" The Figure yelled rushing Lupa, slamming her into the wooden doors. "I know when I'm being followed."

"I wasn't…I…wait, Kai?" Lupa asked.

"Well done Lupa, you always were the smart one," Kai said lowering the hood revealing part of his face.

" _You're_ the Master…but Saber he…" Lupa stammered.

"The question is, what am I going to do with you now?" Kai said. "I _should_ kill you, no one would find your body up here for months."

"Don't," Lupa said.

"And why shouldn't I?" Kai asked.

Silence.

"That's what I thought," Kai said drawing his sword

"Kill, me your life will be _over_ ," Lupa said.

"No, you've got that the wrong way around, _your_ life will be over. I can almost see the funeral, all the Masters and students gathered around your grave, your Mother, Father and annoying Brother," Kai said pointing the sword at Lupa.

He was trying to unnerve her, he had no problem killing her and didn't care what happened to him afterward, as long as he killed her, and it was working.

"Please don't kill me," Lupa pleaded. "Let me go."

"Why would I do that?" Kai asked. "What can you offer me in exchange?"

In Lupa's head, Sashi already knew what she was going to do and was screaming at her not to do it.

"My loyalty, in exchange for my family's safety," Lupa said.

"Hmm, tempting," Kai said thoughtfully "I guess I'll let you live, for the moment. Lupa slowly stood up.

"Return home, tomorrow, you'll tell my father you saw nothing unusual,"

Lupa nodded and raced out of the Palace, back home.

* * *

-The Next Morning-

"Lupa, did you find anything?" Master Nakamura asked.

"Uh, no nothing," Lupa answered. "Kai walked around town for awhile, then returned home, he never left."

"Alright, but keep your eye on him, just in case," Master Nakamura said.

-During morning training-

"Well, this Tiger-lion's exhausted, I'm heading home," Dega said tiredly.

"We barely started," Kiera pointed out. "You need to at least train until lunch."

Dega groaned loudly.

"Fine," He said.

* * *

-two hours later-

"I'm gonna Die!" Dega groaned, lying on the training hall floor.

"You're not gonna die," Kiera said standing over the Tiger Lion arms crossed, looking just like her mother when she was annoyed by something, usually Kiro.

"You do great impressions, can you do anyone else," Dega joked.

"Get up!" Kiera said stomping on Dega's tail.

"YEOW! What'd you do that for?!" Dega said cradling his tail. "I think I need a bandage."

"You'll be fine," Kiera said.

"You're mean," Dega said standing up rubbing his injured tail.

"And you're lazy," Kiera said back.

Saber chuckled in the background.

"Shut up Saber," Dega said. "I'm going home."

Dega arrived home and went right into the kitchen looking for a snack. He stopped dead in his tracks, frozen in horror when he saw his mother impaled by one of his power swords, holding the sword was…him?

Dega rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

" _You see this too, right?_ " He asked Los.

His double pulled the sword out and dropped Mei-Ling to the floor, grinning when he saw Dega standing in the doorway in horror.

"Shame huh?" It said in Dega's voice making the real Dega shiver as he wiped the sword off on his pants.

Dega took a fighting stance, ready to attack this doppelganger where it stood.

"Don't move," It said pointing the glowing sword at Dega.

"Who are you, really?" Dega asked. "How do you know how to use my swords?"

"Now where's the fun in that?" The double asked moving around Dega, towards the door.

"You'll never get away with this," Dega said.

"I'm pretty sure I already have," The double said smugly, dropping the swords and raced out of the house, leaving Dega.

He spun back around and rushed over to his mother.

"Hang on Mom," He said kneeling next to her.

The door behind Dega crashed open a moment later as Dai, Kiro, and Tigress rushed inside the house.

"It's you!" Dai yelled.

"No! Wait! Let me explain!" Dega cried as Dai pulled him away from Mei-Ling's body, and pinned him to the floor.

"You can explain in jail," Dai seethed pulling Dega to his feet.

"It wasn't me, I swear!" Dega said as they hauled him off to the jail.

"Save it!" Tigress spat shoving him into the cell, slamming the door behind him. "You murdered our friends, why should we believe _anything_ you have to say, murderer!"

"Dad, you know I didn't do this, right?" Dega said looking at his father.

Kiro remained silent, then followed the others out of the prison.

"I can't believe Dega would do this," He said once outside.

"Dega didn't murder Mei-Ling," Dai said.

"Wait, so…what?" Kiro asked confused.

"Someone's trying to frame Dega," Dai added once they were safely inside the Academy, away from prying ears. "I don't think it was the Master, we didn't see his signature anywhere in the house or on Mei-Ling's body."

* * *

-With Dega, same time-

Dega lay on the cot in the prison cell, waiting. He knew it was only a matter of time before Dega was transferred to Chor-Gom Prison.

At dinner, a guard brought Dega his food and left, as he left something fell from his pocket, the cell door key. Dega stared at the key to his freedom for a few moments before reaching out and grabbing the key off the floor, and tucked it into his pocket, and continued to eat. He'd wait until nighttime when the guard shift changed to make his escape.

" _You know that was way too convenient,"_ Los said.

" _Oh, I know,"_ Dega said as he ate his food. _"This stuff sucks."_

* * *

-With Lupa in the training hall-

"Your brother is going to escape from prison, tonight," The Master said to Lupa. "Steal his swords and stop him, kill him if you have to."

"Yes, Master," Lupa said.

* * *

-Back With Dega, shortly after midnight-

" _I sure hope you know what you're doing,"_ Los said in Dega's head as he unlocked the door and quietly snuck out.

" _This is where all those hours in Master Nakamura's stealth class are going to come in handy,"_ Dega said back sneaking down the hallway.

A shadow of a suddenly appeared around the corner, Dega quickly jumped up and grabbed onto the beams on the ceiling and pulled himself up just as the guard himself came into view.

Dega watched as the guard passed below him, once the guard was out of sight He dropped silently to the floor.

Dega snuck back home and in through his bedroom window to retrieve his swords, what he didn't expect to find was Lupa, already in the room, waiting for him, holding the swords.

"Lupa? What are you doing here?" Dega asked.

" _Wait, something's not right,_ " Los said.

"What are you doing with my swords?"

"You murdered Mom," Lupa said, sparking the swords, giving the dark room a greenish glow.

Dega leaned back just in time as Lupa swung the swords at his chest.

"What are you doing?! Have you lost your mind?!" Dega said backing away from his sister.

"Come on Lupa, snap out of it!" Dega said avoiding another strike from his sister.

" _It's The Master, he must have gotten to her somehow,_ " Los warned.

"RAH!" Lupa yelled spin kicking Dega out the door, into the hallway with a loud crash, it was lucky their father wasn't home to hear the crash.

Dega quickly rolled to the side as Lupa threw one of the swords at his head, embedding it in the wall.

"Hey! You could hurt someone with that!" Dega said pulling the sword free in time to block another strike from Lupa. The twin weapons sparked wildly upon impact throwing sparks everywhere.

"Lupa, I know you're still in there, stop this," Dega said kicking his sister back, getting to his feet. Lupa only growled and charged at Dega again with a ferocity He had never seen from her before.

It was slowly becoming clear He wouldn't be able to stop her unless he seriously hurt her in some way.

"I don't want to hurt you," He said.

"That'll be you undoing, then!" Lupa snarled charging at Dega once more, malice in her eyes.

Dega had never seen such hatred in Lupa's eyes before, she drove him back towards the staircase where he balanced, on the verge of falling. But Dega managed to push her back and swung his sword at her chest, slicing her shirt making her bleed a little, she dropped to a crouch a hand on her chest.

"Lupa! I'm sorry, I didn't…"Dega started to say, dropping his sword rushing over to her.

Dega was cut off as Lupa tackled him to the floor, Dega kicked her off and stood up.

Lupa kicked him in the chest, knocking him back towards the staircase. She hit him with a series of powerful blows to the chest, driving him to the edge of the staircase.

"Lupa, don't…" Dega said teetering on the edge of the staircase.

"KYA!" Lupa hit Dega with a claw fist, knocking him down the stairs. Dega tumbled down the stairs, landing in a heap at the bottom.

Dega slowly got up on all fours, only to have Lupa land behind him and grab him around the neck in a choke hold. Dega whipped his head back, breaking Lupa's nose and broke free of her grip.

He turned around, looking at his sister slumped against the stairs, holding her bleeding nose, and fled the house.

" _What have I done?"_ He thought racing through the town. _"Everyone's gonna think I attacked Lupa."_

" _Well…you kinda did,"_ Los pointed out.

" _She gave me no other choice!"_ Dega said back. _"It's like she was possessed or something."_

* * *

-With Kiro early that morning-

Kiro returned home after night patrol and found Lupa in the bathroom tending to her injuries.

"Lupa! What happened?" He asked rushing over to his injured daughter. "Who did this to you?"

"Dega…Dega broke out of prison and attacked me!" Lupa lied. "He tried to kill me!"

* * *

-Later that morning-

"Last night Dega escaped prison and attacked Lupa, we have to track him down," Dai said. "He is now a criminal and should be treated as such."

Kiera shifted uncomfortably in place.

"Master, are we to bring Dega in unharmed?" She asked.

"Dega murdered Mei-Ling and attempted to murder Lupa," Dai said and looked at Kiro.

"But try and bring him in alive, if possible, if not…" Dai said ominously.

The Students all nodded in understanding.

"Good," Dai said. "Spread out and find him."


	12. Authors note, part two

Authors Note, Part two

Looks like I'm gonna have to take an extended break from Rise of the Villian while I try to figure out what I'm going to do with part two. In the Meantime, here's a preview of what's to come…

* * *

"Come on! Kill me!" Kai yelled at Kidd as he laid defeated on the floor of his weapons factory. "Strike me down, get vengeance for your dead friends!"

"No," Kidd said lowering his pistol.

"Pitty," Kai said drawing a knife, pressing a button on the grip, launching the blade into Kidd's chest.

Kidd gasped, dropping his pistol to the floor, staggering backward, looking at the blade sticking out of his chest, before falling over backward.

* * *

"Takami's dead!" Dega exclaimed running up to the others, laying the poster on the table, on it were the pictures of The Elemental Hazards, Takami, Ryo, and Kidd all had deceased stamped over their pictures, the others, wanted.

"There's more," Dega said lying another poster over the top, this one had the pictures of the Furious Five, Dai, Kiro and Po, all but Tigress and Kiro were stamped with deceased.

Tigress looked at the poster and felt her heart stop.

"Kai's main factory is huge, it's like a small city," Kaizer said.

"He's is attempting to clone and mass produce power weapons," Kaizer said. "With them, his arm will be able to march across China unchallenged."

"We have to stop him," Kiro said. "That kind of power in the wrong hands…" He shivered at the thought.

"How?" Tigress asked.

"We could sabotage the production lines," Saber suggested.

* * *

(Hiro is the son of Dai's brother, i.e., Dai's nephew)

"The way my father sees it is, how long is it gonna take for Kai's war to cross the sea to Japan," Hiro said

"So you'll help?" Kiro asked, "Cause we could really use it."

"Officially, my hands are tied, _un_ officially, I can tell you my father has a strike fleet ready to invade China with an army 10,000 strong of my father's best Samurai Warriors," Hiro said.

* * *

There we go, a small preview of what's to come in part two, March of Evil, and these are in order but I won't say when exactly they happen


	13. Devils Advocate

Devils advocate

* * *

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

Wow, it's been kind of awhile, hasn't it? Lots of other projects to keep me busy

* * *

"Dega is now a criminal and should be treated as such; Spread out and find him," Dai ordered.

"What do we do when we find him?" Kiera asked.

"Bring him in alive, if you can't…" Dai said.

"Wait, this is my son we're talking about! We can't just kill him!" Kiro protested.

"They won't," Dai assured him.

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Kai muttered, Dai shot a glare at him.

"Kiera, I want you to search the forest, Lupa head over to the Thread of Hope, make sure Dega hasn't crossed over,"

"I can do that," Lupa said.

"Kai, stay here in the Village in the off chance Dega comes to his senses and returns, but _do not_ hurt him, understand?"

"Yes father," Kai said.

* * *

-At the Thread of Hope-

"Lupa,"

Lupa turned around to see the Master standing behind her in his signature mask and cloak.

"I need you to kill Dega Takimuro before he becomes a problem," The Master said holding out a crossbow for Lupa.

"I…I can't," Lupa said hesitating. "He's my brother."

"That didn't stop you last time," The Master said. "You very nearly killed him, now I want you to finish the job and prove your loyalty to me."

In her head, Lupa could here Shashi telling her not to do it, but it sounded distant like a whisper.

"Okay...I'll do it," Lupa said finally, taking the Crossbow from The Master

"Good, no mistakes this time, aim for the heart," he said and disappeared into the forest.

* * *

-With Kiera-

Kiera kneeled down and examined the footprints in the dirt.

" _He's close,"_ She thought and stood back up.

She heard Dega grumbling off in the distance.

"He's very, very close," She said ears twitching around trying to locate him.

* * *

-With Dega-

"Man, this sucks!" Dega complained swatting a tree branch out of his way. "I'm not built to be a criminal."

" _Calm down,"_ Los said inside the tiger lion's head.

" _Easy for you to say, you don't have to deal with this,"_ Dega said back. _"Everyone now thinks I'm a murderer and killed my mom."_

"Dega! Don't move!"

Dega froze and saw Kiera standing a few yards in front of him.

"Dega…don't," Kiera warned as he took a step backward., "Dega…"

The Tiger Lion turned tail and bolted away from Kiera.

"Dega!" Kiera yelled and gave chase. _"Why do they always run?"_ She thought, chasing after the tiger lion.

" _You know running makes you look more guilty,"_ Los said. _"You should stop."_

" _Are you nuts!? Have you seen her!? She'll murder me!"_ Dega said, right on cue, Kiera roared from behind Dega and launched herself at him, Dega dodged to the side at the last second causing Kiera to miss and fly past him.

Kiera growled and chased after him again. "Dega! Stop!" She yelled.

"No! Go away!" Dega yelled over his shoulder.

The forest abruptly ended at a cliffside. Dega slid to a stop and turned around in time to see Kiera emerge from the trees and backed towards the cliff side.

"Dega…" She warned as Dega backed towards the cliff.

"I didn't kill my Mom," Dega said backing towards the cliffside, glancing over his shoulder at the sheer drop behind him.

"I know, just step away from the cliff, please," Kiera said staying far back from the cliff.

Dega, however, remained where he was. "Are you gonna arrest me?" He asked.

"The Masters just want to talk to you," Kiera explained.

"They all think I'm a criminal, even my Dad!" Dega said.

"I don't," Kiera said. "They've been blinded by The Master, he's trying to turn us against each other.

"Please, just come back with me," She almost pleading with him.

"Okay…" Dega said. "I'll just…" An arrow slammed into Dega's chest cutting him off. He gasped looking at the arrow and started to tip over backward.

"Dega, No!" Kiera said rushing forwards, reaching out for him as he fell backward off the cliff. Kiera looked over the side ignoring the feeling in the pit of her stomach, searching for Dega, she couldn't see him anywhere.

She whirled around at looked at the tree line, to where the arrow had come from, she couldn't see anyone. She heard a twig snap and saw a blur of motion between the trees and ran after it.

A crossbow bolt flew past her missing her by inches.

Kiera growled and put on a burst of speed, catching up with the shooter, all she could tell from this distance was, it was a feline, a hood obscured its face.

It wasn't The Master, though it couldn't be its figure was too slender.

Kiera wished she had a ranged weapon, she couldn't seem to close the gap on whoever it was. They suddenly changed direction, heading back to the town, Kiera frowned, why would they head there? The whole town was on alert.

The forest abruptly ended, Kiera found herself back at the old thread of hope.

"End of the line, assassin," Kiera said, "There's nowhere else to run."

"Didn't you learn anything? There's always another way," The assassin said aiming the crossbow at Kiera.

Kiera heard the snap of the bowstring and saw the bolt flying towards her head and twisted out of the way, it grazed the side of her head sending her to the ground, holding her head, when she looked back up the assassin was gone.

She slowly stood up holding her head and returned to the Academy.

"Kiera!" Dai said looking up at her, seeing the injury on her head. "What happened?"

"I found Dega," She announced solemnly to the others sitting down on the stairs.

"Where is he?" Kiro asked, Kiera, bit her lower lip and shook her head, saddened.

"Kiera..?" Kiro asked again.

"He's gone," She said quietly shaking her head. "He was shot….he fell off the cliff, I…I tried to catch him but…"

Kiro's breath caught in his chest, he couldn't believe it.

"N…no, he can't be gone," He said. "Did you catch the shooter?"

Again Kiera shook her head

"I'm sorry," She said. "I lost them at the Thread of Hope,"

* * *

-Dega, in the afterlife-

Dega groaned loudly and cracked his eyes open.

"Ow…" He said putting a hand on his head.

"Wait…" He said looking around. "This isn't the Valley of Peace."

"Welcome to the afterlife bro!"

Dega looked around and saw Los running towards him, tackling him in a hug.

"Okay, okay, get off me," Dega said pushing him off, standing up.

"Wait, am I? Did I die?" Dega asked.

"Technically…well, maybe," Los said.

"Oh that's very helpful," Dega said.

"No, you are not dead," A voice said

Dega whipped his head around.

"Mom!" He exclaimed hugging her.

* * *

-With the Master-

"It's done, Master," Lupa said kneeling down in front of him, panting heavily from her chase through the woods.

"Good job Lupa," He said. "With Dega gone, we are one step closer to victory."

"Forgive me, but wouldn't it have been wiser to kill his Father, Kiro instead?" Shan asked.

"No, his time will come, killing a Master this early in my plan would have brought the wrath of my Father down on all of us," The Master said.

"But won't he still…" Shan started to say.

"Are you questioning my plans?" The Master asked interrupting him, rounding on the Mountain Lion

"No, sir," Shan said.

"Good, to answer your question, no it wouldn't, Master Tigress keeps my father in check, so killing her brother would be…unwise," The Master said.

* * *

Sorry about the Chapter being shorter than normal, your regularly sized chapters shall resume shortly.


	14. Assault on the Valley

Assault on the Valley

* * *

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

Sorry, this has been taking so long, but I've been completely swamped with other things lately.

* * *

Since they couldn't search during the night, Saber and Kiera waited until the next morning to return to the cliff to perform the grim task of searching for and recovering Dega's body for the funeral, scheduled for that evening.

"Well, this is the place," Kiera said. "Dega was shot and fell off there." She said pointing at the cliff.

Saber walked over to the ledge and looked over; he saw nothing but trees below him, the canopy below him was too thick with foliage to see anything else but tree tops.

"Kiera come on over here a second," He said crouching down next to the ledge, looking over the side.

"I'm fine here, thanks," Kiera said hanging back by the forest, keeping a hand on a tree trunk, staying well away from the cliff.

"Come on, it's fine," Saber said standing up, turning around to look at her

"No, I think I'll stay here," Kiera said.

"Wait a second," Saber said frowning. "Are you afraid of heights?"

"Yes," Kiera said nodding shamefully. "But, I never used to be until…I…"

"Fell off the Thread of Hope," Saber finished.

"It's my fault Dega is dead, I couldn't save him because I didn't want to get close to the edge," Kiera said still hanging back.

"No, it's not your fault," Saber told her walking over to her. "Whoever pulled that trigger is to blame."

"Come on, let's go check out the jungle down there,"

After about an hour and a half of hacking their way through the jungle, they found the place Dega should have landed and found nothing remarkable.

"There's nothing here," Saber said looking around.

"No kidding," Kiera said.

"No, I mean there's nothing here, where's Dega's body?" Saber said. "He should have landed somewhere around here, right?"

Kiera looked around, Saber was right, Dega's body was nowhere to be seen. Could he have survived and walked away?

"Dega!" Kiera yelled thinking he might still be in the area, injured.

"Dega!" Saber also yelled.

* * *

-With Dai and Tigress-

Tigress went to Dai's house and found the tiger searching around through some of his old things in his room, looking for something.

"What are you looking for?" She asked hanging in the doorway.

Dai stood up and turned around, Tigress saw a certain scroll in his hand.

"Is that..?" She asked.

"The Dragon Scroll? Yes," Dai said. "It's time for a new generation of Dragon Warrior."

"You kept it? But who..?" Tigress asked.

Dai stepped forward handing Tigress the Dragon scroll and whispered a name into her ear, she gasped and her eyes went wide.

"That name does not leave this room, understand?" Dai said. "If The Master finds out, the new Dragon Warrior's family would be put in grave danger."

"I understand," Tigress said holding the scroll to her chest. "But when do we tell The New Dragon Warrior?"

"You'll know the time," Dai said cryptically. "Just in case," He added putting a small vial into Tigress's hand.

She recognized it as a restoration potion, capable of healing a person on the verge of death, and highly illegal.

"Dai? Why do you have this? This is seriously dark magic." Tigress asked.

Dai didn't answer her and left the Academy to walk home for the night. It was a nice clear night, for now, Dai looked up at the moon, it shone brightly in the sky. An eclipse was starting, some called it a blood moon.

" _Fitting,"_ Dai thought looking up at the sky as it gave the moon a reddish almost sinister glow

"Dai Nakamura!" A voice yelled out from the darkness as he walked down the street.

Dai paused and turned around to see three ominous looking figures standing in the road behind him.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"You can help, by dying!" The figure in the middle yelled sparking a pair of familiar looking blue staffs, the figures flanking him sparked an orange tomahawk and Dega's swords.

All three figures charged at the Tiger Master, forcing him to back up and quickly draw his Katana to defend himself.

All three figures wore masks covering their faces, hiding their identity. But Dai knew who at least one of them was Lupa, the others had to be The Master and his other unknown henchmen.

Dai caught the staffs on his Katana and shoved The Master back, slicing at his chest with the sword. As he did the other two attacked him, Dai ducked under Lupa's swords and punched her in the gut as the other attacked from his left.

"Lupa, stop this!" Dai yelled catching the swords on his Katana. "I know you're still in there, you have to fight it!"

"I'm afraid it's too late, she's long gone," The Master said.

Dai drew the Wakizashi from his Daisho with his left hand and caught the tomahawk as it swung towards his head. Slightly smaller in length than his Katana Dai preferred to use the Wakizashi with a reverse grip.

"Lupa, please don't make me do this!" Dai yelled as the eclipse started, making the night even darker. "Think about your father, you're the only family he has left!"

"Shut up!" Lupa yelled attacking the Tiger again swinging the swords at him.

Dai caught the swords on his Katana, the weapons sparked wildly, throwing green sparks everywhere.

Dai disarmed and kicked Lupa in the leg, forcing her to her knees in front of him.

The Master yelled and attacked Dai from the side preventing him from delivering the final knockout blow.

"I swear, I'm gonna kill you," he snarled spinning the staffs in his hands throwing sparks everywhere. There was something very familiar about that motion.

"I won't go down so easily," Dai said still in his fighting stance with his swords.

"Yeah," A voice said from behind him. Dai glanced behind him to see Kiro and Tigress, Kiro had already sparked his staffs giving the weapons gave the two an eerie glow the Dai turned back to the Master and his henchmen, smirking.

"What's the matter? Afraid of a fair fight?" He taunted.

"Far from it! You and the Masters are a dying breed!" The Master spat. "You will never stop us!"

"I've heard that before from other villains; Lord Shen, Sage, Grandmaster Feng, and Emperor Jow, so I'm looking forward to it already," Kiro said counting off the defeated villains.

"Where they failed, I will succeed! You will all die tonight!" The Master yelled and charged at them.

The six warriors clashed, it was old versus new, young versus old as they fought each time the power weapons collided, a sharp crack resonated through the town, like a clap of thunder.

* * *

-Back with Saber and Kiera-

"Dega!" Kiera called out loudly.

"Okay, okay jeez, what are you? My mom, I heard you the first dozen times!" Dega said emerging from the trees.

"Dega!" Saber and Kiera exclaimed.

"Nine lives baby!" Dega said. "Though, I'm probably down to four five by now… oh well."

"We probably should return to the town," Saber said looking back in that direction, hearing the faint sound of the power weapons colliding.

* * *

-Back with the Masters-

As they fought, a voice broke through the rain and chaos.

"Dad!"

Kiro paused thinking he'd heard something, he turned around and saw Dega rushing towards them with Kiera and Saber.

"Dega?" He questioned not believing his own eyes.

"No! Dega, wait! Stay back!" He warned.

Just as Lupa struck him across the face with her swords, spinning him to the ground.

"Dad!" Dega yelled, sprinting to his father's side. Before he got there, Lupa blocked him spinning the swords in her hands summoning a ballista

"Dega!" Kiro yelled as it fired.

Dega spun to the side narrowly avoiding the bolt, but it still sliced the skin on his back.

"Dega!" Kiro yelled seeing his son get struck by the weapon, he got up and launched himself at Lupa, tackling her off the top of the ballista, breaking her concentration, making the siege weapon disappear.

He wrestled Lupa to the ground and took the weapons from her and tossed them back to Dega.

"My babies! Oh, how I missed you!" Dega cried cradling the weapons like an infant.

Lupa snarled and punched her father on the side of the head.

"I'm sorry Lupa," Kiro said hitting a pressure point on his Daughter, paralyzing her.

"RAH!"

Kiro leaned back in time to see the tomahawk sail past his head, he glanced to the side and saw The Master's other henchmen standing there.

"Where did you get that? We locked it away," Kiro asked as the Tomahawk came sailing past him again.

"Why should I tell you that?" The masked figure said catching the weapon, throwing at Kiro again, forcing him to leap into the air, away from Lupa.

"I can do this all day…or night actually," Kiro said landing on his feet nearby.

He saw Dai and Tigress fighting The Master, something about his fighting style seemed very familiar to him all of a sudden.

A moment later he realized why…

"Dai, Tigress, back off! he's trying to draw you in!" He warned them.

At the same moment a thin blade sprang from inside The Master's sleeve, Dai just barely managed to catch it on his sword.

Under his mask, The Master smirked at him.

"Kai…?" Dai asked in shock.

The Master relaxed and pulled his mask off, letting it fall to the ground, revealing his face to everyone.

"Surprised? No?" He asked.

"B…But…" Tigress stammered, looking at her son in disbelief. "Why?"

By now the other Masters had heard the fighting and came outside to join them.

"It's over Kai," Dai said. "You're outnumbered."

"Oh I don't think so," Kai said amusement in his voice, He raised his staff above his head and waved it around in a wide circle.

At first, nothing happened, then the sound of marching feet reached the Master's ears.

"Actually, I think it's _you_ who are the one's that are outnumbered," Kai said confidently as the soldiers marched into the town.

"CHARGE!"

The mass of soldiers collided with the Heroes, Kiro combined his staffs together into one long staff and was hitting soldiers left and right. Dai sliced at stabbed at soldiers with his Katana, Tigress punched, kicked and clawed the soldiers.

Kiera used a combination of her father's Wakizashi and her claws, Saber shocked soldiers with his lightning, managing to shock several soldiers at once.

"I haven't done this in years! It's so AWESOME!" Kiro yelled spinning the staff in his hands.

"Agreed!" Dai yelled back cutting down soldiers with his Katana, the blade almost seemed to gleam with joy as it got covered in blood.

Oddly, Kai was nowhere to be seen during the battle. The Heroes had other things to worry about though as more and more soldiers poured into the town, there seemed to be no end to them.

Finally, after hours of fighting the last soldier fell as the sun started to rise above the mountains, the eclipse had passed.

"Is everyone okay?" Dai asked.

"We're all fine," Kiro said.

A dull thudding sound reached Dai's ears, he looked up at the sky.

"Kiro! Shield!" Dai suddenly yelled seeing the cannon balls flying through the air towards them.

Kiro quickly summoned a bubble shield to protect them, the large half circle was something new Kiro had been working on

Seconds later the Cannonballs impacted around them, exploding upon impact, destroying buildings and houses indiscriminately. The barrage lasted for several minutes, leaving the town in ruin.

After another minute Kiro dissipated the shield, the ground looked like a moonscape, craters were everywhere, despite the rain, several buildings were burning, including the Academy.

"That's why Kai held back," Tigress said looking around. "He didn't want to get caught in that."

"This isn't over," Dai said. "Not yet."

"We should evacuate, while we still can," Kiro said.

"Retreat?!" Tigress asked shocked. "We can't!"

"Tigress, look around you, we won't survive another attack," Dai said indicating around him at the burning or destroyed buildings. "The Valley is lost, we have to fall back!"

"Dai's right," Po said. "We _have_ to fall back, I don't think we can survive another barrage like that."

"I don't think Kai is gonna give us a choice," Dega said as the sound marching reached their ears.

"Where'd he get all these soldiers from?" Kiro said, "Is there like a bad guy convention or something where you can just get a fully equipped army from?"

This time, Kai was leading his soldiers with a now revived Lupa.

They stopped about twenty yards away from each other.

"I'm going to give you one last chance to surrender, no one else needs to die today!" Kai yelled over at them. Tigress looked sideways at Dai, waiting for an answer. The tiger looked uncertain, He wasn't seriously considering surrendering to Kai, was he?

"We'll never surrender to you or any Villian!" Tigress spat.

"So be it, I was really hoping we could come to sort of an agreement," Kai said disappointedly. "WIPE 'EM OUT!" He yelled. "LEAVE NO SURVIVORS!"

Dai shot a glare at Tigress as Kai's soldiers charged at them.

"Once more into the fray," Kiro said sparking his staffs once more.

Again, Kai seemed to be hanging back, away from the action to direct his troops. Looking up he saw Crane flying overhead, swooping down to attack his soldiers.

"Take that bird down!" He ordered, pointing at Crane up in the sky.

The crack of musket fire sounded through the town, Dai paused in time to see Crane plummet out of the sky and crash onto a rooftop. If the musket balls hadn't killed him, the fall certainly would have.

Dai growled, "Kiro! We gotta take out those muskets! Or they'll tear us apart!" He said getting the Tiger's attention over the battle.

Kiro nodded and tossed one of his staffs to Dai who tapped it on his chest creating a large blue outline of a Tiger, Kiro did the same making a red Tiger.

At the outskirts of the town, Kai smiled seeing the large outlines.

"Ready the cannons and Hwacha!" He ordered.

Dai and Kiro were tearing through Kai's soldiers when they both heard the sound of cannons firing.

"Kiro…" Dai said seeing the cannon balls streaming through the air.

The cannon balls hit them, exploding upon impact forcing the two tigers back. Kiro's outline flickered under the bombardment and went out, Dai saw the tiger fall to the ground just before his went out too.

Dai landed on a rooftop and slid down to the ground and checked on Kiro.

"I'm fine," The Tiger said slowly getting to his feet.

A screaming tore through the air.

"Oh, what now!?" Dai exclaimed helping Kiro to his feet.

He looked up and saw hundreds of arrows filling the sky, blocking out the sky.

"Scatter!" Dai yelled to the others

Dai quickly summoned a shield to protect Kiro and himself as arrows blanketed the area around them.

The barrage of arrows didn't last very long, and from what Dai could tell, no one had been seriously injured from it.

The heroes regrouped in the ruined town square, everyone seemed okay.

"We have to retreat," Dai said. "When Kai attacks again, and he will, we won't be able to hold him back, we already lost Crane."

"I…agree," Kiro said.

"No! We have to stand and fight!" Tigress said.

"Tigress, look around you, what's left to defend?" Dai asked.

"We've faced countless odds before and always have come out on top," Tigress insisted. "Kai is just another villain, and we'll defeat him just like Emperor Jow or Grandmaster Feng."

Dai bit his lower lip, thinking.

"We'll do whatever you think is best, Dad," Kiera said.

* * *

What do you think the heroes will do? Will they retreat and live to fight another day? Or stay to defend the Valley of Peace?


	15. Last Stand

Last Stand

I do not own Kung Fu Panda

Warning: This chapter contains the death of major characters read at your own risk, I'm sorry but this isn't a story of the heroes triumphing over evil.

* * *

Dai looked around him at the destroyed town formulating a plan to defend the town against Kai's forces.

"We'll use the ruins and set up an ambush for Kai and his forces," He said finally. "Once they're inside the town we'll attack."

"Hey, wait for a second, what about Lupa?" Kiro asked, "What if she gets caught in the crossfire?"

"I was getting to that; Kiera, Dega that'll be your job, draw Lupa away from the main force and capture her,"

"Yes Master," The two students answered and spread out amongst the ruins.

"The rest of us will wait for Kai's forces, and draw them into a bottle-neck, once they reach the center of the town, we'll ambush them," Dai said.

"Sounds like a plan," Tigress said.

* * *

-Three hours later-

With the Masters were spread out around the town in various hiding places, waiting for Kai's army to enter. Kai seemed to be taking his time, though.

"What's taking so long?" Kiro asked balancing his staff on his palm.

"Be patient; You can't rush an ambush," Dai said peaking over the rubble, looking for any sign of Kai or his army.

* * *

-With Kai-

Kai frowned and looked at the town below him through a spyglass.

"Where did they go?" He muttered to himself, scanning the town for the heroes, he saw nothing but rubble and burning buildings, there was no sign of the heroes anywhere.

"Maybe they fled the valley," Shan suggested standing at Kai's side.

"No, it's not like my father to sneak away, and besides, Master Kiro's rocket cart isn't exactly subtle," Kai said lowering the spyglass.

"Move our troops into the town," He ordered after a moment of thinking.

"You heard him; MOVE OUT!" Shan yelled marching forward with Kai's army.

* * *

-Back with the heroes-

Dai looked back over the rubble and saw Kai's army marching toward them.

"Here we go," He said drawing his Katana, looking over at Kiro who was snoring.

"Kiro wake up!" Dai hissed shaking Kiro's shoulder.

"Finally!" Kiro said snapping awake.

"You were sleeping," Dai said

"No, I wasn't!" Kiro said quickly.

"Wait until they pass by," Dai whispered to Kiro as the soldiers marched passed them.

Dai looked over to where Dega and Kiera were hiding and gave them a signal.

* * *

-With Dega and Kiera-

"Remember, we're supposed to capture Lupa only, don't hurt her," Dega said quietly to Kiera.

"No promises," Kiera said spotting Lupa, getting ready to attack.

When she was younger, Kiera had learned a thing or two about attacking and killing someone quietly from of all, people Kiro's cousin Zina, the assassin. So she knew how to capture Lupa without seriously hurting her. If it came to it, she wasn't sure she would be able to take Lupa down.

"Stay low, stay quiet and follow me," She whispered to Dega.

Keeping an eye on Lupa, Kiera and Dega snuck around Kai's Army using the destroyed buildings as cover, Lupa separated herself from the main force heading for the town square.

"This is our chance," Kiera whispered to Dega. "Get ready, we have to do this quickly; or it won't work."

* * *

-In Lupa's mind-

Lupa was locked in a cage, next to her in another cage was Sashi, her bad side had put them both here, Sashi was pretty beaten up, but she couldn't die again, could she?

Lupa looked up and saw Kiera and Dega ambush herself from the sides and above and start fighting with her, the fight playing out on a large screen in front of her.

Stop it!" She yelled at her bad side, seeing Dega get flung into a fallen column and fall to the ground, unmoving. "You're going to kill them!"

"That's the point," Her bad side said turning to her. "You're friends are _all_ going to die tonight!"

-With Dega and Kiera-

Kiera looked at Dega lying on the ground, slowly getting to his feet and attacked Lupa, driving her back towards the Statues of her father, Tigress, and Kiro.

"Lupa, I know you're still in there, you have to fight it!" Kiera said forcing Lupa against the ground by the neck and arm

Lupa headbutted Kiera, making her let go and delivered a strong right hook to her jaw knocking the tigress off her and standing up. Kiera rolled over and kicked Lupa in the gut, driving the breath out of her, making her stagger backward, holding her stomach.

She straightened up, growling.

* * *

-In Lupa's Mind-

Lupa watched herself fighting Kiera, Kiera was slowly losing ground

"Stop, please! Your gonna kill her!" She begged, shaking the cage, watching as she flung Kiera into the statue of her father, where she fell, unmoving

Lupa cracked her neck and grabbed Kiera by the head, punched her several times, then began the strangle her.

"No!" Lupa yelled as her bad side strangled Kiera.

* * *

-Reality-

"Lupa!"

Lupa froze and turned around to see Dega.

"Hello, brother," She said letting go of the nearly unconscious Kiera, who collapsed to the ground coughing and gasping for air while holding her neck; and faced Dega.

"D…don't make me do this Lupa," Dega said pulling out his emergency dagger.

Lupa sparked the swords, letting our a war cry, charged at her brother.

Kiera slumped against the base of the statue coughing, vision blurry, she looked over and saw Dega and Lupa fighting, she wiped the blood off her face and got to her feet and rushed over to help Dega. If she could disarm Lupa, they had a chance to capture her.

"You can't win! The Master will destroy you all!" Lupa seethed.

"RAH!" Kiera yelled, attacking Lupa from behind and kicked her into a wall.

Kiera's success was short lived as Lupa stood back up, wiping the blood from her mouth.

"Somethings wrong with her!" Dega said

Looking at the Tiger-Lion Kiera realized Dega was right, something was off about her, Kiera could tell from the way she stood, she seemed…unhinged.

"Surrender, Lupa, before anyone gets hurt," She said.

"The only one's who will get hurt are the two of you!" Lupa yelled and charged at the two teens.

"Let's see if you can pull off another miraculous escape, brother!" She said and threw the kunai at him.

Dega saw the dagger flying toward him and dodged out of the way.

"You missed!" He said back to Lupa.

"Did I?" Lupa asked.

"No!" Dega yelled spinning around, he watched the dagger fly through the air and hit Kiera in the chest, knocking her over, against the foot of the Statues.

Dega looked back at his sister horrified

"How could you? Kiera was your friend!?" He said.

"She was weak, as are you brother," Lupa said turning to her brother, drawing the swords from her back, summoning a cannon, pointed right at Dega.

"Uh oh,"

* * *

-With the Masters-

Kiro heard the bang and looked towards the center of town in time to see a green flash of light.

"Dega," he said pausing.

"Go!" Tigress yelled, and Kiro ran off leaping over and ducking under rubble.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Kai said dropping down in front of the tiger master. "No one said you could leave."

"Sorry, I don't take orders from psychopaths," Kiro said attempting to dodge around Kai only to get thrown into a destroyed house.

"Ouch," Kiro said standing up.

"Come on Master Kiro, let's see what you've got," Kai taunted.

Kiro caught the sword with his staffs and smirked at Kai. The two struggled for a few moments, Kiro's staffs sparking wildly, Kiro's staff slipped on Kai's Katana, the weapon sliced his hand off. He dropped the weapons and dropped to his knees in front of Kai, holding the stump on his wrist.

"Heh, so much for being unkillable," Kai said getting ready to slice Kiro's head off.

"Ya know…I may not be as young…as I used to be," Kiro said. "But…I still have a few tricks up my sleeve!" He said pulling his emergency dagger out, slicing Kai's thigh, knocking him back.

Kai recoiled from the sudden attack and fell over backward.

"Kiro!" Tigress yelled rushing over to her brother, quickly wrapping his arm.

"Oh…hey Ti…" Kiro said weakly.

"I'm gonna kill him! I'm gonna kill that tiger, if it's the last thing I do," Kai growled, slowly getting to his feet.

"Viper, no wait!" Tigress yelled as the snake slithered past her and lunged at Kai. Intent on wrapping around his arms.

Kai had just gotten to his feet and pulled the knife out of his thigh. Kai saw the snake master coming toward him and twisted out of the way, deploying his wrist blade at the same time. Viper tried to change direction as the blade swung toward her, but it was too late.

The blade sliced her clean in half, the two halves fell to the ground on either side of Kai.

Kai stood there panting and retracted the blade back into his forearm.

"Three down…four to go," He said to Tigress and Kiro.

"Tigress!"

The tiger master turned her head and saw Dai and Po running toward her.

Kai snarled at the presence of the two Masters.

"You two are _really_ starting to annoy me," He said.

"Surrender, Kai!" Po yelled.

"I don't think so," Kai said whirling his staffs around. "This isn't over, not by a long shot."

"Kill them! Kill them all!" Kai yelled pointing at the remaining heroes.

The soldiers armed with muskets lined up and fired at the heroes, Kiro quickly threw up a shield to protect them against the projectiles. The shield withstood the barrage but flickered out.

"CHARGE!" Kai yelled running forward.

Kai's soldiers clashed with the Heroes once more.

* * *

-Back with Dega and Kiera, in the town square-

Lupa pointed the cannon at her brother and lit the fuse, the explosion threw Dega back against the statue of Dai, where he fell to the ground near Kiera, a line of blood running down his face into his mouth.

Lupa smiled and waltzed up to Kiera, grasped the dagger and pulled it out.

"AHH!" Kiera screamed.

Lupa also grasped Kiera's necklace and ripped it off as proof of her death for Kai and left the area.

"Kiera?" Dega asked half crawling up to her. "Are you still with me?"

"I'm…still here," Kiera replied tiredly.

Dega examined the wound the dagger had made in Kiera's chest, it was small. Luckily wasn't a very good shot, it had missed her heart hitting near the bottom of her top.

Dega tore a part of his shirt off and pressed it onto the wound.

Kiera groaned in pain, clawing at the ground.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Dega exclaimed quickly bandaging the wound with the piece of his shirt.

"Come on, we need to get back to the others," Dega said helping Kiera to her feet.

The sound of marching soldiers made the two turn around.

"On come on! Is there no end to these guys!?" Dega said.

"There's two of them, FIRE!"

Only the limited accuracy and range of the muskets saved Dega and Kiera from being killed, a musket ball still grazed Dega's arm making him drop Kiera to the muddy ground.

"Oh boy," Dega said standing in front of Kiera, between her and the soldiers. "This isn't good."

* * *

-With Kai-

Kai looked at the captured heroes kneeling in front of him.

"Swear loyalty to me, and I'll spare your lives," He said.

"We'll never join you!" Tigress growled.

At that time, Lupa walked into view, holding the bloodied dagger, along with Kiera's necklace.

"Where are Kiera and Dega? Did you deal with them?" Kai asked seeing her.

"I dealt with them," Lupa said ominously holding out the necklace for everyone to see.

"No…" Tigress said tears forming in her eyes seeing the blood-covered necklace and dagger.

Kai turned to the captured hero, kneeling before him and smiled slightly.

"Now you know how it feels," He said to Tigress.

A sudden gust of wind knocked him off balance, He looked toward the source and saw Po and growled.

"Show off, shoot him!" He ordered, pointing at the Panda.

Po dodged the musket fire easily enough and disarmed the soldiers by summoning another gust of wind. Kai saw this and couldn't help but smirk.

"You never did have what it takes, you're gonna have to do better than that," He said to Po slamming his staffs into the ground, shocking the panda, forcing him to drop the staff and fall to his knees.

Po reached out for Oogway's staff but Kai's foot came down on his hand.

"A valiant attempt, Panda, but I don't think so," He said twisting his foot on Po's hand, picking up Oogway's staff, snapping it in two, tossing the fragments aside, into a pile of burning rubble.

"You and the other heroes are finished," He said grabbing the defeated panda by the top of his head, deploying his wrist blade

"Long live the Dragon Warrior," He said plunging the blade into Po's chest.

"NO!" Tigress yelled lunging for Kai, only to be stopped by Lupa who was holding her.

"Kill her next," Kai looking to Tigress.

"Yes, Master," Lupa said standing behind Tigress, placing a knife to her neck.

"Any last words, _mother_?" Kai said vehemently.

"You're not my son," Tigress said. "My son would never do these things."

"Then you didn't know me very well," Kai said drawing his finger across his neck signaling Lupa to kill her.

"KAI!" A loud voice rang out.

Lupa paused, and Kai turned around to see Kiera standing on a pile of rubble the rising sun behind her.

Tigress looked over and saw Kiera too.

" _Kiera_?"

"No! Impossible! I killed you!" Lupa said.

"You should have tried harder!" Kiera said back. "I'm the daughter of Dai and Tigress, I don't die so easily!"

"Soldiers! Shoot her, now!" Kai yelled pointing at Kiera.

The muskets fired, Kiera leaped off the rubble and land on the ground, landing a clawed fist to Kai's chest, throwing him back.

Kiera and Dega quickly released the heroes.

"Kiro, we need a rocket cart!" Dai yelled once he was free. "We gotta get outta here!"

"I've had just about enough of this," Kai growled. "LEVEL THE TOWN!" He shouted waving his staffs above his head signaling the remainder of his army.

"One plus sized rocket cart, coming right up!" The tiger Master said

"I'm not letting you escape!" Kai yelled maniacally and charged at the heroes, deploying his wrist blade.

Tigress saw him first, running and dodging his way towards Dai.

"Dai! Look out!" She yelled.

Dai turned around and saw Kai coming at him with his wrist blade and reached for his Katana, quickly drawing the weapon.

Before it was even halfway out of its scabbard Kai, hit Dai under the chin and sliced him across the chest with the poisoned blade. Dai yelled and fell to the ground, Kai stood over him, smirking.

"NO!" Tigress yelled rushing forward.

"And so ends the reign of the Masters," Kai said preparing to deal the final blow to the wounded tiger.

A red beam of energy hit Kai in the chest blasting him back several yards.

"Tigress! we need to leave, NOW!" Kiro said rushing forward, grabbing her, dragging her toward his rocket cart as a sea of soldiers descended on the town.

"We can't leave without Dai!" Tigress yelled fighting against Kiro.

"I'll get him, just hurry up!" Saber yelled blasting soldiers left and right with his lightning.

Kiro put Tigress on the cart next to Kiera and reached for the string as Saber leaped in with Dai.

"Don't you dare pull that string!" Tigress yelled at him. "We can't leave Po's body here!"

"I'm sorry," Kiro said and pulled the string. The survivors shot off into the night just before Kai's forces overwhelmed their position.

On the ground, Kai looked up and saw the rocket cart blast off into the sky and paused.

"Sir, do you pursue them?" Shan asked running up next to Kai.

"No, let them go for now," Kai said watching as the cart disappeared over the horizon.

"Are you sure that's a wise decision?" Shan questioned.

"We've beaten them and taken the valley; let them lick their wounds for now," Kai said turning to his troops.

"The Heroes have fled; VICTORY IS OURS!" He yelled raising his sword over his head in victory.

* * *

End of Part one, I hope I did okay, please don't kill me, long action scenes aren't my thing. The story will continue in part two


	16. Inner Peace

Part two: Rise of an Empire

Chapter One: Inner Peace

I don't own any part of Kung Fu Panda

* * *

I'm sorry about Po's death in the last chapter, I wanted to do it fast and didn't turn out the way I wanted and felt rushed so I may go back and edit it later if I feel like it.

* * *

Kiro kept the rocket cart going as long as he could until just outside the Valley of Peace it disappeared, the Heroes fell out of the sky like a meteor, landing hard. Leaving an impact trail.

Kiera was the first to recover, rolling onto her side she looked around at the impact zone and saw the others spread out around her.

"Mom?" She said seeing Tigress lying nearby, crawling over to her.

"I'm alive," Tigress said sitting up slowly.

"Dai!" Tigress exclaimed seeing the tiger lying on his side close by, rushing over to him, rolling him onto his back, leaning him against a large rock.

"Hey, Ti," He said, coughing a few times, but he was alive.

"Great landing, Kiro," He said weakly, giving him a thumbs up.

"Thanks," Kiro said.

Tigress quickly pulled out a small vial of liquid.

"Is that…?" Kiro asked.

"A restoration potion? Yes," Tigress said uncapping the vial to pour it in Dai's mouth.

"Wait…" Dai said putting his hand up to stop her. "Don't,"

"What?" Tigress asked unsure if she'd heard him right.

"Save it…for…someone else," He said glancing at Kiro and Dega.

"What are you talking about?" Tigress asked. "I'm not going to let you die!"

"I'm tired, Tigress, I'm tired of running from death," Dai said growing weaker from the poison in his body.

"You can't!" Kiera cried out, tears filling her eyes.

Dai looked at his daughter.

"I'm so proud of you…you know that," He said to her.

"I…want you to…have…these," Dai said handing Kiera his swords.

Kiera took the swords, holding them to her chest, holding back tears.

A few moments later Dai grew still and was gone.

"Dai?" Tigress asked giving his shoulder a shake. "Dai!"

* * *

Kai sat alone in the dragon grotto, underneath the Palace. He was meditating, trying to achieve inner peace like his father, and Master Po had.

"What are you doing down here alone?" Lupa asked him walking up behind the Tiger.

"Meditating, I'm trying to achieve inner peace," Kai explained without moving.

"Can you even do that?" Lupa asked.

"I see no reason why I can't," Kai said.

"How are you going to do it?" Lupa asked.

"I don't know, Master Po achieved it by defeating Lord Shen, but my father was never too talkative about how he achieved it," Kai said. "Eliminating the Masters is a good start though."

A moment later one of Kai's scouts, a female hawk landed in the grotto.

"Sir, the heroes crash landed a few miles outside the Valley, witnesses said they fell out of the sky like a meteor," She said. "Troops nearby investigated the crash site but found no sign of the heroes; Do you wish to pursue them?"

"No," Kai said standing up, holding his hands behind his back looking out the grotto. "We've beaten them and taken the Valley, we must shift our focus to other cities."

"Inform Shan I intent to move the army out, and move on Gong-Men City," Kai informed the Hawk.

"Yes sir," She said and took off.

"Lupa, I have a special assignment for you, I want you to go to Chor-Gom Prison and free Zina," Kai said turning around, facing Lupa.

"Zina? Wasn't she a friend of your fathers?" Lupa asked.

"Yes, until he betrayed her," Kai growled.

"Break her out and bring her to me," Kai ordered.

"Yes, Master!" Lupa said bowing and quickly leaving the grotto.

Kai sat back down and exhaled slowly.

"Inner…peace…"

* * *

The heroes reached an unnamed village several miles outside the Valley of Peace, they felt broken. Tigress hadn't said a word since the crash, no one could blame her, she'd just lost two of her best friends in the span of a few short hours.

"Mom?" Kiera asked walking up beside her mother.

"I'm fine!" Tigress barked swatting Kiera's hand away.

"Give her time," Kiro advised her. "She'll come around, eventually,"

"We need a place to stay," Kiro added.

"I'll see if I can get us some rooms at an Inn," Tigress said before walking off.

* * *

-Later at a restaurant-

"We need to prepare a counterattack against Kai," Tigress said after several minutes.

"I'm not so sure that's such a good idea," Kiera said.

"As much as I hate to agree with miss grumpy cat, I agree," Dega said. "A counter attack now will only hurt us."

"Well said, Dega," Kiro said.

"No! We have to hit Kai now!" Tigress said slamming her fist on the table.

"Tigress, you're upset about the deaths of the others, so am I but you're letting your emotions control your actions," Kiro said. "You're not thinking."

"No, we can do this!" Tigress said. "Kai won't expect a counter attack so soon, we have to hit him while we have the element of surprise!"

"Tigress, in case you haven't noticed; there's only five of us left," Kiro pointed out "We can't launch a full-scale invasion of the Valley."

"Maybe we don't have to," Kiera said thinking. "A smaller attack with just us and the Elemental Hazards could do the job."

* * *

-With Kai-

"Sir, the troops are ready to move out," Shan said walking up to Kai's throne in the former Jade Palace.

"Good, good," Kai said. "Move them out today, Gon-Men City will be mine."

"Yes, sir," Shan said standing, leaving the throne room, passing Lupa and Zina on his way out.

"Zina, welcome to my Palace," Kai said standing up, greeting the assassin. "I have a mission for you."

"And why on earth would I ever work for you?" Zina demanded.

"Kiera," Kai said. "I know you and my sister were close, that you thought of Kiera as the daughter you never had."

Zina growled at him. "I swear if you hurt her,"

"Exactly my point," Kai said smirking at her. "Swear fealty to me, and I'll make sure she stays alive, at least for now."

Zina growled but kneeled in front of his throne. "I swear," She said glaring at the floor.

"Good," Kai said as Zina stood back up, still glaring.

"Now, I suspect the heroes are planning a counter attack on the Valley, Lupa, Zina I want you to stay here, at the Palace, while I head to the new factory," Kai said.

* * *

-With the heroes-

Couple hours later the heroes met with the Elemental Hazards just outside the Valley of Peace. They had just returned from scouting the Valley, the news wasn't good.

Kai has taken over the entire Valley," Takami informed them. "He's building a weapons factory, to mass produce power weapons…"

"That's impossible!" Kiro said then remembered that Kai was in possession of both Dai's staffs and Dega's swords. "We have to destroy that factory."

"To do this, we have to attack the Palace and Kai's new weapon's factory at the same time," Takami said. "If we fail to take either one, we lose."

"We should split up into two teams, Saber and the Hazards should take the Factor; while the rest of us take the Palace and arrest Kai, and end this war," Tigress said. "After that, the army will march into the valley and secure our victory."

"Agreed," Takami said rushing off with the Hazards.

"Kiera, wait for a second," Saber said quickly, Kiera paused wondering what Saber wanted.

"Listen...um...since we might not come back from this, there's something I wanted to tell you…" Saber started to say, scratching the back of his head.

"Saber, stop," Kiera said putting a hand up. "I know what you're going to say, and I already have a boyfriend."

"You do?" Saber asked surprised. "Why haven't you ever mentioned him?"

"Well, you never asked," Kiera said with sly a smile.

Saber mentally face-palmed.

"Saber! Come on!" Takami yelled at him. "We gotta go!"

"Well, uh good luck" Saber said to Kiera.

"You too," Kiera said back running off with the other Heroes

* * *

That's it for chapter one of part two, I may go back in the future and edit some things


	17. Extinguished

Extinguished

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

*This chapter contains character deaths*

* * *

The heroes cautiously entered the town, it looked like it was completely deserted. There wasn't anyone around; all the villagers were either gone or in hiding.

"I don't like this, where is everyone," Tigress said looking around as they walked."This place should be crawling with Kai's soldiers."

"You're complaining about that?" Kiro asked.

"That must be the factory," Takami said seeing a large building under construction, looming in front of them.

"It's huge! How did Kai manage to build that so fast!" Kidd said looking at the factory.

"I don't know, but it won't take us long to burn it all down," Takami said igniting a flame in his hand.

The heroes split up, with Tigress, Kiro, Kiera and Dega heading for the Palace and the Hazards, plus Saber heading into the factory.

Tigress, Kiro, Kiera, and Dega reached the base of the Palace stairs unchallenged and began the long climb.

"I still don't like this," Tigress commented as they climbed.

Once they reached the top, Tigress paused in front of the doors to the former Hall of Heroes.

"Ready?" She asked the others, and they nodded.

Tigress kicked the large doors open, and they rushed inside. They saw a lone figure sitting on a throne which had been put in place of the moon pool.

"Are you looking for The Master? Because he's not home right now," The figure said standing, facing the Heroes of China, holding her swords.

The doors slammed shut behind the Heroes trapping them in the Hall of Heroes.

"This was all a trap!" Tigress said "Kai knew we were coming,"

"Did you really think Kai didn't know? He knows every move your gonna make even before you do,"The figure stated smugly, lowering its hood to reveal Lupa underneath it.

"Tigress, if this was a trap for us, what about the Hazards and Saber?" Kiro asked.

"I imagine Kai is taking care of your Elemental friends right about now," Lupa said.

-With the Hazards-

"How did Kai put all this together so quickly?" Ryo asked as the Hazards looked around the factory that was being constructed.

"Don't know, but it'll take us about five minutes to burn it all down," Takami said. "Split up. We'll do more damage that way."

The Hazards split up into two smaller groups, taking different areas of the factory.

"Now, how are we gonna burn this down?" Takami wondered aloud.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to do that,"

The three Hazards all turned around in time to see Kai drop down from a catwalk above them, dressed in his black shoulder cape and mask.

He stood in front of the Hazards as if waiting for something...

"He knew we were coming," Takami realized suddenly, eyes widening. "This was a trap!"

"Give that man an award!" Kai said, clapping slowly, pointing at Takami.

"But…how…?" The leader of the Hazards asked.

"I have my ways," Kai said drawing his Katana, attacking the Hazards

The attack was so fast, and so sudden the Hazards didn't have time to react, Kai grabbed Skyler by the arm and threw her into one of the supports, where she tried to get up but fell, unmoving.

"NO!" Takami yelled shooting fire at Kai, who wrapped himself in his cape, the flames dissipated harmlessly around him, and he laughed at Takami.

"Like it? It's fireproof," Kai said. "I made it just for this occasion."

Takami threw two more fireballs at Kai, who effortlessly dodged them.

Kai picked up a spare shield lying on the ground and hurled it like a frisbee Takami who was forced to roll to the side to avoid it, while he did Kai charged at the leader of the Hazards, clearing the gap in seconds. Takami backpedaled frantically, blocking Kai's punches and kicks.

Takami swung at the tiger with a flaming right hook, hitting Kai's face, he yelled and fell to the ground holding the burned side of his face.

"It's over," Takami said extinguishing the flame, standing over Kai.

"I don't think so," Kai said breathing heavily.

The villain suddenly leaped up, deploying his wrist blade, and drove the poisoned blade into Takami's chest, lifting the tiger a few inches up off the floor. Takami spat up some blood before Kai pulled the blade out, dropping Takami to the floor.

The leader of the Hazards gave his last few labored breaths before passing on.

"NO!"

Kai whirled around to see Ryo standing above him, on a catwalk, Kaizer on the ground floor with Kovu, Kidd, and Skyler.

Kai smirked and drew his staffs, sparking the weapons.

"Surrender, and we might let you live," Kaizer said drawing his Katana.

"Last chance," Kidd said pointing his pistols at Kai.

"Never," Kai said backing up, looking at the remaining hazards standing around him in a semi-circle, putting a hand on his Katana.

"Don't," Kaizer warned him holding his Katana in front of him. "You're outmatched."

"I don't think so," Kai said slowly drawing his sword. "Do you know what sword this is?"

A moment later Kaizer recognized it as a Muramasa blade. It was said those blades were cursed, whoever wielded one held enormous power.

"That sword was destroyed," Kaizer said. "Broken into pieces and scattered across China."

"Enough talk!" Kai yelled and charged at Kaizer. "Today you all die!"

* * *

Tigress hit Lupa and sent her sailing out the Palace doors, tumbling down the steps.

"Tigress, be careful!" Kiro cried. "Don't hurt Lupa!"

"Tell that to her!" Tigress growled back. "She nearly killed me!"

"What happened to Zina?" Kiera asked not seeing the assassin anywhere.

"So she ran off, your complaining about that?" Dega asked.

"No, it's not like her," Kiera said looking around the Hall of Heroes. "She's here somewhere."

Kiera was right, Zina was watching the heroes from the shadows, Kunai in hand, waiting for the moment to attack. She soon came to realize Kai was right; she couldn't do it, the time she'd spent with Dai's family had taken its toll.

She sighed and threw the kunai at the floor in front of Kiera instead.

Kiera looked up and saw Zina on one of the pillars above her. She narrowed her eyes at the assassin...

* * *

"You really think killing me will end this war? That my soldiers will simply lay down their weapons? Then you're more naïve than I thought, kill me, and I'll become a martyr, hundreds will join my cause, thousands more after that," Kai said out of breath, wiping the blood off his face.

"We're not gonna kill you, you're going to prison where you belong," Kaizer said.

"Pitty," Kai said deploying his wrist blade, attacking Kaizer with a renewed anger.

Kai ducked as Kaizer punched at him, hitting a support instead causing it to become dangerously unstable. Kai spun sideways, and Kaizer hit another support, the catwalk above them started to collapse. They both looked up and watched Ryo lose his balance and fall off plummeting to the floor fifty feet below crashing into scaffolding on the way and crash into the floor.

Kai looked up at the scaffolding and dove out of the way as in came down on top of Kaizer, burying him, ending the tiger's life.

On the ground level, Kidd saw Ryo slam into the floor and rushed over to his friend.

"Ryo!" He called kneeling next to his friend, a steel bar impaled in the wolf's side.

The wolf coughed up some blood and was gone a moment later.

"KAI!" Kidd roared drawing one of his pistols. "I'm gonna kill you!" He yelled.

Kai coughed and brushed the dust off himself, standing up straight.

"I'm right here," He said from behind Kidd, who spun around and fired, missing the fallen hero by mere inches.

Kidd quickly pulled out a second pistol as Kai charged at him and kicked the weapon out of his hand, causing it to slide across the factory floor, out of reach.

Kai kneed Kidd in the stomach and dove for the weapon, bringing it to bear on Kidd in time for him to knock it out of his hand. The pistol clattered to the floor again, and Kidd made a move for it, Kai got there at the same time, the two struggled over the weapon, Kai slowly pointed it under Kidd's chin and smirked grasping the trigger.

Kidd growled and pushed the weapon back at Kai, the villain stared down the barrel of the pistol and laughed as Kidd's finger tightened on the trigger.

"Go ahead," He said. "I know you know you want to do it, come on, kill me! Avenge your friends!"

Kidd hesitated, and Kai smiled starting to push the weapon away from him back toward Kidd.

"No…not...like this, not…" Kidd started to say looking down the barrel of his own pistol, trying to push the weapon away from him as Kai's finger squeezed around the trigger.

The pistol went off with a loud bang, the bullet entered under Kidd's chin and exited the top of his head, he slumped over backward, onto the floor.

"Live by the gun and die by it," Kai said panting dropping the weapon to the floor.

Suddenly Kai was enveloped in a dark shadow that blocked out his vision and left him completely blinded.

"Kovu," He growled looking around. "You'll have to do better than that. I trained in darkness!"

He heard the slight sound of a Katana being unsheathed and turned around and gasped as Kaizer's Katana sliced his side, making him drop his sword to the floor.

"I know your there, Kaizer, shame on you for making Kovu do your work." He said breathlessly, turning around on the spot, holding his side. Something hit him from the side making him stumble before he could recover he was struck from behind and again from the front, something hit his shoulder making him shout, he felt a sword cut across one of his legs.

By now, Kai's fight with the Hazards had begun to take its toll on him one of his legs was bleeding he had at least two broken ribs, and he was pretty sure his left shoulder was dislocated.

"ENOUGH!" Kai yelled slamming his staffs into the floor, causing a shockwave that sent the Hazards, and Saber, flying away from him, in all directions.

Kaizer slammed into a support beam, cracking it, and fell to the floor. He got to his feet and looked at Kai, his staffs seeming to pulse and vibrate with energy. Around him, the other Hazards, and Saber were recovering from the shockwave and getting to their feet.

Kai spun his staffs in his hands, the weapons humming with deadly energy. He turned around in place, looking at the remaining Hazards standing around him.

Kaizer charged at Kai; Kai quickly raised his staffs time to catch Kaizer's Katana on his on the weapons.

"I should have known you would have survived, you heroes always do," Kai said. "This time, I'll separate your head from your shoulders," He said spinning his Katana in his hand.

"We'll see," Kaizer said.

* * *

Zina dropped down to the floor, staring Kiera in the eyes, unsheathing her Father's Katana's Kiera went into a fighting stance, ready to fight Zina.

"Kiera..." Tigress warned. "She's too strong; you can't take her on by yourself."

"You should listen to your mother,"

The heroes turned around and saw an angry looking Lupa standing in the doorway.

Without warning, Lupa attacked the other teen; her power swords clashed with Kiera's Daisho, Kiera wasn't going to give Lupa the chance to summon anything.

As they clashed, Tigress looked out the doors and saw the Factory ablaze in the Valley below, Kiro saw it too.

"We gotta go!" He shouted.

* * *

Kaizer lay on the floor of the factory, he reached for his Katana lying near him, but Kai's foot came down on his hand.

"I don't think so," The Villian said picking the weapon up, weighing it in his hand. "Nice sword." He said turning it in his hand, ready to stab Kaizer in the back with it.

A bolt of lightning hit Kai and sent him flying away from Kaizer, into some crates. Kai lay there for a moment before slowly getting to his feet.

"Oww," He groaned, standing up slowly, smoke pouring off his body.

He looked over saw Saber helping Kaizer to his feet and growled.

"Take the building down!" Saber yelled.

Kai looked up in the direction Saber yelled and saw Kiba and Skyler standing on a catwalk above him trying to burn the building down. He snarled and threw a Kunai at Kiba, he dodged, and it missed but was enough Kiba lost his balance on the catwalk and fell off.

Kai turned his attention back to Saber and Kaizer, a look of pure hatred on his face as he drew his Katana.

Skyler dropped down in front of the master villain, despite her broken arm and started fighting Kai.

"Go!" She yelled. "I'll hold him off!"

Saber wasn't about to argue and took advantage of Skyler's distraction and ran off with Kaizer leaning on his shoulder. A few minutes later they both heard Skyler cry out in pain and looked at each other.

"We gotta get out of here," Kaizer said as the factory burned around them.

"Saber!" Kai's voice yelled from behind them somewhere. "I'm gonna kill you! You will die by my sword, you hear me!" Kai screamed as the heroes fled the burning factory.

* * *

There we go, part two chapter two. You can see Kai is starting to become unhinged a little at the end there.


	18. Part two: Rise of an Empire

Part Two: Rise of an Empire

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

* * *

One month has passed since the Heroes' catastrophic defeat in the Valley of Peace the surviving Heroes have gone into hiding, powerless, as Kai's army sweeps across China, taking city after city virtually unchallenged.

* * *

The surviving heroes were gathered around a table at a restaurant in a small unnamed village near the coast; their defeat in the Valley of Peace and the loss of their friends had severely damaged their will to continue to fight Kai, their morale had reached a low point.

Meanwhile, Dega was wandering around the town when he came across a large poster that made him stop. He stared at it for a second before he tore if off the wall and quickly ran back to the others with it.

"Look at this!" He said laying the poster on the table. It showed pictures of Takami, Ryuu, Kidd, and Skyler, all with the words deceased stamped over them, the only one still missing; was Kaizer

Underneath that, it had the Five, Dai and Po, Tigress's face grew somber upon seeing Po's picture.

Under that at the bottom of the poster it had the remaining heroes with the word; wanted, stamped over their picture's.

"What are we going to do?" Dega asked the two remaining Masters, Tigress and Kiro.

For the first time in her life, Tigress didn't have an answer.

"I…I don't know," She said.

"With Kai's army marching across China, Cities and towns are falling like dominoes. We have to do something!" Kiera, Tigress's daughter exclaimed.

"There's nothing we can do," Tigress said.

"Listen to yourself! You sound like you've already given up!" Kiera shouted.

"Kiera, quiet!" Tigress hissed as Kai's soldiers marched past the restaurant reminding them this was an occupied village.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Tigress is correct," Kiro said in a low voice. "Trying to fight Kai now would be disastrous for us."

Kiera growled lightly and stood up to leave. She couldn't believe this; the Master's had given up trying to fight Kai. She knew her father would still want to fight; he wouldn't give up.

" _What am I supposed to do Dad?"_ She wondered looking up at the sky. _"How am I expected to be the Dragon Warrior?"_

A breeze blew through the Village, Kiera felt something comforting about it as the wind blew through her fur.

" _Dad? Are you trying to tell me something?"_

Kiera looked around for anything that might be a sign from her father. She didn't see anything. Another breeze blew through her fur feeling almost like a hug, her worry seemed to melt away, she could almost feel her father hugging her, telling her it would be okay; tears began to well up in her eyes.

After days of holding it in, Kiera finally broke, letting her tears over her fallen friends finally fall free.

She quickly returned to her hotel room and collapsed on the bed still trying not to cry. A few minutes later her mother came into the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to her. She had never seen her daughter like this before.

"How am I supposed to do this?" Kiera asked her.

"I don't know," Tigress said. "Your father and I never faced an enemy like this before."

"How do I defeat Kai?"

"I'm sorry don't have all the answers, Kiera," Tigress said. "I wish I did."

* * *

-Three days prior-

Three of the remaining Elemental Hazards, Kaizer, Kovu, and Skyler sprinted through a forest in southern China. After the failed attack on the Valley, the Heroes had decided to split up across China to better evade Kai's soldiers. It wasn't doing them much good as the three Hazards ran for their lives through the thick forest.

The three came to a small clearing about fifteen feet across, standing near the center of it was Lupa, swords ignited.

Kaizer slid to a stop when he saw her and held out his arm for Kovu and Skyler to stop.

"End of the Road, Beelzebub,"

Kaizer turned around and saw Kai emerge from the trees and pushed Kovu behind him.

"Surrender," Lupa said.

"Never," Kaizer said back, over his shoulder.

"Then you will die!" Kai spat, drawing his Katana, a flash of recognition came across Kaizer's face, he had been hoping against hope he hadn't seen that weapon in Kai's hands. Kai let out an almost paranormal sounding scream as he launched himself at the last remaining Hazards. Caught without a weapon, Kaizer backpedaled frantically, trying his best to avoid the cursed blade.

Kaizer heard a lightning strike come from behind him telling him that Skyler was fighting Lupa.

"Kovu! Hide!" Kaizer shouted ducking as Kai attempted to slice his head off.

Kaizer grabbed Kai's arm and twisted it to the side, driving his knee into his stomach, Kai staggered but remained on his feet. Kaizer growled He was going to have to find a way to disarm Kai somehow or this was gonna be a really short fight. Before he could do anything, he heard Lupa cry out and saw her slam into a large tree trunk, dropping her swords before falling to the ground.

"Perfect," The former assassin thought to himself, making a run for Lupa's dropped swords.

"Oh no ya don't," Kai said chasing after him.

Kaizer reached the swords and picked one up, spinning around just in time to catch Kai's katana on it, the power weapon sparked wildly as it came into contact with the cursed blade.

Kaizer pushed Kai back, forcing him into the center of the clearing, each time the weapons clashed, it sounded like a deafening pop or snap and threw green sparks everywhere. Behind Kai, Kaizer saw Lupa slowly getting to her feet picking up her remaining sword, glaring at Kaizer as she did. Kaizer backed up, holding the sword in front of him looking between Kai and Lupa.

"I don't know what Kai did to you, but this isn't you Lupa, your not evil," Kaizer told the tiger lion. "You have to try to fight it."

"You know nothing!" Lupa shouted back.

The two charged at Kaizer, ready to kill the Hazard.

"The time of Heroes is at an end!" Kai said as they fought, weapons clashing. "The world no longer needs you."

"The world will always need people like us!" Kaizer said back catching Kai's Katana on his borrowed sword, shoving the villain back, slicing at his chest. "To keep the world safe from people like you!"

The sword left a diagonal cut across Kai's chest plate. Kaizer smirked and whirled around as Lupa attacked him from behind. The two power swords collided letting out a wave of energy that threw them all back and knocked the tress down around them in a large radius.

Kai was the first one to recover from the blast, standing up, shaking his head as he stood up.

In the center of the clearing was a good sized crater, still smoking from the blast.

"Whoa," He said seeing the level of destruction around him, the tress near the center of the clearing had been stripped of their foliage the ones further out had been snapped like toothpicks.

Lupa was the next to recover having been thrown several yards, getting to her hands and knees she shook her head, putting a hand on it as she stood upright.

Kaizer and Skyler hadn't gotten so lucky. Kaizer had been thrown the same distance as Lupa, just in the opposite direction, and now lay on his stomach, not moving. Skyler had gotten luckier and was already standing up, though her stance was off, she was holding her left arm.

"Kaizer?" Skyler asked limping over to the tiger. "Kaizer?!"

Kai growled, seeing Skyler and rushed at her, Skyler heard Kai running towards her and spun around preparing to shoot lightning at him; Kai stabbed at her, his sword stabbing through Skyler's chest, lifting her into the air several inches. He held her there for a moment before he pulled the sword free dropping her limp body to the ground and turned his attention to Kaizer still lying on the ground he had a large gash on the side of his head.

"Master, what do we do about the other?" Lupa asked walking up next to Kai as Kaizer's vision began to fade out.

"Search the surrounding woods for him," Kai ordered. "When you find him, kill him."

After that Kaizer's vision had blacked out entirely, and he passed out.

* * *

-Back with the Heroes-

Tigress was still comforting her daughter when suddenly, Dega burst into the room; he looked like he had some important news.

"What is it?" Tigress asked worried Kai's soldiers had finally tracked them down.

"It's Kaizer; he's downstairs!" He said urgently.

"Kaizer? He survived?" Kiera asked.

"It would seem so," Dega said before retreating downstairs.

Kiera and Tigress followed Dega downstairs to the restaurant and saw Kaizer sitting at the table a bandage wrapped around his head.

"Kaizer!" Kiera said seeing Kaizer and the condition he was in, he looked terrible. "What happened?"

"Kiera let the man breathe first," Dega said.

"It's fine," Kaizer said taking the drink Kiro offered him.

"Since we were separated after the attack I wasn't able to tell you this. Kai is in possession of a Muramasa blade. I suspect it's the same one that caused Dai to go nuts a bunch of years ago."

"Impossible!" Kiro said. "We destroyed that sword; we scattered the pieces all over China!"

"Impossible didn't kill Skyler," Kaizer said slamming his empty cup on the table. "She fell to that accursed blade three days ago."

"I'm sorry," Tigress said. There had always been a small chance Skyler had survived the attack on the factory as no one had seen her die.

"What about Kovu?" Kiera asked afraid of the answer.

Kaizer shook his head. "I don't know,"

"That monster!" Kiera exclaimed.

"It wasn't Kai," Kaizer said. "Kovu was likely killed by Lupa."

"What?!" Kiro exclaimed. "Lupa would never do such a thing."

"Everyone has a good and a bad side, remember Kiro," Tigress reminded him. "Kai has just found a way to get Lupa's out."

"What do we do about it?" Kiera asked. "How do we get Lupa back?"

"I'm not sure we can," Kaizer said. "When I fought her in that clearing, the look she had in her eyes, it was pure evil."

"We have to try," Dega said. "She's my sister. I can't just abandon her."

"Maybe there is a way," Tigress said pulling out the restoration potion Dai had given her.

* * *

The Curse of The Muramasa Blades is a real Japanese legend


	19. War Machines

War Machines

I do not own Kung Fu Panda

* * *

Kai stood in his throne room, looking at the large map of China hanging on the wall. His army had conquered the Valley of Peace as well as several towns and Villages surrounding it, and would soon move on Gong-Men City.

"Sir,"

Kai turned around to see Lupa standing behind him.

"Yes, Lupa?" He asked.

"The last of your scouts have returned," Lupa informed him.

"And?" Kai asked.

"There has been no sighting of the Heroes since they fled the Valley," Lupa said.

"They must be in hiding, or are being protected by someone," Kai said. "Recall the remaining scouts."

"Sir?"

"To move an enemy, you must entice him with something he cannot resist," Kai said quoting the Art of War.

"How do you plan on drawing them out?" Lupa asked.

"Leave that to me," Kai said. "You are dismissed."

"Yes, sir," Lupa said bowing before she left.

"Zina!" Kai said, and the assassin appeared.

"Yes, sir?" She asked.

"I have a new mission for you," Kai said.

"What is it?" Zina asked.

"Follow me, I'll show you," Kai said.

Zina followed Kai to one of his factories where he had some of the smartest scientists in China working for him, building and designing machines of war for his Army.

"What is all this?" Zina asked looking around.

"The future, Zina the future," Kai said. "The future is mechanized warfare, I have seen it."

Zina looked at a blueprint lying on a table, it looked like a ship, without sails.

"Ironclad?" She asked Kai.

"Ships powered by steam, with a metal hull, impervious to cannon fire," Kai explained. "That is your mission, I want you to overwatch their construction at the Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard."

"Forgive me for asking, but why?" Zina asked. "I think my talents would be more useful elsewhere."

Kai chuckled a little. "I see why my father liked you; if you must know, I plan to use the ships to draw the heroes out of hiding and kill them," He said.

Zina frowned at the mention of Dai and suppressed a growl.

"When they come to investigate, ambush them on the dry docks with explosives," Kai ordered her. "I'll make sure word of these weapons reaches the Heroes."

"Yes, sir," Zina said bowing before leaving the factory.

Kai watched her leave, thinking. Was it possible she still had an attachment to his father, after all these years? Kai frowned watching Zina's retreating form, if she still had an attachment to his father, he would have to do something about it.

For now, however, he'd let it go. Right now, he had more important things to worry about. Like the construction of his other war machines, and the imminent invasion of Gong-Men City.

Kai left the factory and returned to the former Jade Palace, where he found Lupa, seemingly arguing with herself.

"No, no, NO! I WON'T!" She shouted, holding her head, shaking it back and forth.

"I won't do it!" She cried, falling to her knees, tears gathering in her eyes. "I won't hurt my friends anymore!"

"You can't force me!" Lupa cried drawing a dagger from her belt.

Kai, fearful of what she might do jumped into action and wrestled the dagger away from her.

"What are you doing?!" He asked her.

Lupa blinked a few times, seemingly unsure of what was going on.

"Nothing, Master," She said.

"You were going to stab yourself, weren't you?" Kai asked.

"What? No!" Lupa said. "I am in complete control."

"I hope so because I want you to go to the Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard with Zina to guard the Ironclads," Kai said, handing the dagger back to her.

* * *

-With the Heroes, minus Saber-

Just like Kai had said, word of the new invulnerable ships reached the Heroes a few days later. Gathered around a table they were trying to decide what to do. Kiera sensed a trap.

"Kai is trying to lure us out into the open," She said. "Giving us an unguarded target, it's straight out of the Art of War."

"If these ships _are_ real, we can't let them be completed," Tigress said.

"How?" Kiro asked. "We don't even know where they are being constructed."

Tigress scratched her chin thoughtfully.

"The Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard, it's brand new and the largest in China," She said.

"That's a long way away," Kiro said. "Even longer, considering my staffs are on the fritz."

"What's wrong with them?" Tigress asked.

To demonstrate, Kiro sparked one of his staffs, which ignited, but only for a second before going out.

"They're out of charge," He said placing the weapon back on his hip. "I used the last of the charge to get us out of the Valley of Peace."

"So…what do we do?" Kiera asked. "Walk all the way there?"

"It would seem so," Tigress said standing up.

"Ugh, I hate having to walk everywhere," Dega said groaning.

* * *

-Back with Kai-

A few days had passed since he'd let the information about his new ships leak out, now it was only a matter of time before the Heroes came to try to destroy them. Right now he was observing the ships at the dry dock with Zina and Lupa.

"Incredible," Zina commented. "Iron ships that can still float."

"These, are just the beginning," Kai said.

"What do you mean?" Zina asked.

"You'll see, eventually," Kai said not willing to give up all his secret weapons.

Kai glanced sideways at Lupa, standing at his right, something had been off about her the past few days. Maybe she was starting to resist the mind control potion he'd given her. It wouldn't be impossible, it was the same extract that had been used on her father all those years ago during Grand Master Feng's attempt at gaining control of China.

He would just have to keep a closer eye on Lupa for now. The trio left the dry docks, Kai took Zina aside.

"I want you to keep an eye on Lupa, I fear her mind may be slipping, I caught her trying to stab herself a few days ago." He told her.

"I can do that," Zina said. "No problem."

"Good, I'm heading back to the Valley of Peace to prepare for the invasion of Gong-Men City. Do not fail me," Kai said.

"I won't, Master," Zina said.

* * *

-A few days later-

The Heroes arrived at the shipyard in the middle of the night in hopes of destroying the ships. They had separated into two groups, Kiro and Tigress would take one half of the ships, while Kiera and Dega would handle the others.

"Woah," Kiro said when he saw at the fleet of ironclad ships Kai had built on the dry docks

"How do these even stay afloat?" Tigress asked running her hand over the smooth metal plates on the hull.

"I have no idea," Kiro said walking under one of the ships, knocking on the hull producing a metalic sound.

"How are we supposed to sink these?" Tigress asked following him.

"Oh! we could damage the…," Kiro paused when he realized the ship had no sails, nor a mast.

"Um…okay," He said. "New plan?"

"Whatever it is, hurry up!" Tigress hissed, the longer they stayed here, the higher their chances of being found were.

"I'm working on it!" Kiro said.

"Well, work faster!" Tigress whispered urgently as some dock workers passed close by.

"I got it!" Kiro said. "Destroy the supports holding the ships, their own weight will damage them."

"Good plan, it won't destroy them, but it will set the construction back several months," Tigress said.

"Thanks, I have my moments," Kiro said.

Their elation was short lived however as Tigress delivered a powerful palm strike to one of the supports, any normal wooden support would have shattered, these however remained perfectly intact, confused and upon closer inspection, Tigress saw they were reinforced with iron bands every few inches.

"The supports are reinforced with iron bands," Tigress informed Kiro

"Oh come on! What is this obsession with iron!" Kiro exclaimed. "First the soldiers, then the ships, now these supports. What else?"

"Wouldn't you like to know,"

Both Tigers turned around and saw Zina crouched above them on the deck of one of the ships.

"How long have you been up there?" Kiro asked.

"Long enough," Zina purred.

"Why don't you come down here so we can greet you properly, Zina," Tigress growled.

"Um no… I'm quite comfortable up here, away from you," Zina said back.

Tigress snarled loudly and leaped up at Zina.

"Come and got me, kitten," Zina taunted, standing up, running off. Tigress gave chase, running after Zina, chasing her through the shipyard with Kiro.

"I can't catch her, she's too fast!" Tigress said as Zina turned abruptly and ran out onto a pier and jumped into the water.

Tigress followed her down the pier, she felt her foot catch on a trip-wire releasing the pin on a grenade and stumbled coming to a stop; Zina had led her into a trap.

"Kiro, stop!" She yelled, whirling around holding her hand up to stop him.

* * *

AHH! Evil cliffhanger! If you're wondering where Saber went, he left in between chapters, he'll return for the conclusion


	20. Ambushed

Ambushed

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

In the last chapter, I made an error I said Kai was plannng to attack Gong-Men City when it should have been Ban-Shi City. I will correct the error soon

* * *

Tigress ran forward and felt her foot catch on a trip-wire and stumbled coming to a stop her eyes widening.

"Kiro, stop!" She yelled, turning around holding her hand up to stop him.

Kiro slid to a stop, along with Dega and Kiera, looking at his sister. A moment later the pier started exploding around her, engulfing Tigress in a fireball, throwing her off the pier, into the water. Useing the remaining charge in his staffs, Kiro quickly summoned a shield to protect himself, Kiera and Dega as the pier stated exploding around them.

The last thing Kiro remembered was the pier under him exploding, being lifted into the air, Kiera shouting his name.

Kiro opened his eyes, his ears were ringing, his vision was blurry, he thought he saw Tigress standing over him.

"Tigress?" He asked.

His vision cleared, and he saw it was Kiera standing over him, not Tigress.

"Come on! Get up!" Kiera said pulling the tiger master to his feet, around him Kiro saw the pier engulfed in flames. Kiera looked for a way through the flames while she held Kiro upright.

"Where…Where's Dega?" Kiro asked.

"He's alright, he made it off the pier just before the explosion," Kiera informed him.

"This way," Kiera said spotting a gap in the flames.

Once they got close, however, they found their way blocked by none other than Lupa who seemed to emerge from the flames, like a phoenix.

Kiera still holding onto Kiro, she drew one of her swords, ready to fight Lupa.

"You are so grounded after this," Kiro said from the ground.

"You're not my father!" Lupa spat. The words stung Kiro coming from his daughter.

"Please don't hurt her," He said to Kiera.

"No promises," Kiera said.

"Enough talking!" Lupa yelled over the roaring flames and charged at Kiera with her swords.

As the two females clashed, Kiro was surprised at how much Kiera reminded him of her father, the fighting style was almost exactly the same. Kiera landed a kick to Lupa's head, knocking her back toward the flames.

"Surrender," Kiera said to Lupa.

"Never," Lupa said grabbing some ashes in her hand, throwing it at Kiera's face, blinding her and burning her.

"AHH!" Kiera yelled and stumbled back, nearly falling over.

"Hey!" Kiro protested.

Lupa advanced on Kiera who was still blinded and raised her sword ready to deal the final blow to Kiera. Kiro tried to stand up to stop her, but his leg wasn't working. He pulled out his emergency dagger aiming at her shoulder so he wouldn't kill her.

"I'm sorry, Lupa," He said and threw it at his daughter.

The dagger struck her in the shoulder, right where he'd aimed but her armor prevented it from doing any real damage

Lupa staggered forward and turned around, looking at her father, enraged and advanced toward him, murder in her eyes.

Kiera, having regained her vision grabbed Lupa from behind, Lupa elbowed Kiera in the gut, but she didn't let go and threw her into the flames.

Kiro stared wide eyed at where his daughter had disappeared, expecting her to reappear. After a few moments, it became clear Lupa wasn't coming back. Out of breath, Kiera turned her back to the flames and helped the still silent Kiro to his feet once more.

They made their way off the burning pier, a moment later the whole thing collapsed into the sea, presumably taking the bodies of Tigress and Lupa with it.

"Where…where's Tigress?" Dega asked when he saw the two.

Kiera shook her head.

"Lupa is gone too," Kiro said finally speaking up.

"But…"

-With Tigress in the afterlife-

Tigress slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a totally different area, she was no longer at the shipyard but lying on her back in a grassy field.

"How did I get here?" She wondered, sitting up

"Tigress?" A familiar voice asked making her stand up fully and turn around.

She saw Dai standing a few yards away, and reality came crashing down around her, she was in the afterlife, she had died on that pier.

Po and the rest of her comrades were standing with Dai.

"Am…am I dead?" She asked though it seemed obvious to her.

Dai took awhile to answer her.

"No, you are not dead," He said. "You are currently lying on the shore, unconscious."

"I have to go back!" Tigress said quickly. "There was an ambush, the pier exploded, Kiera, she…"

"Kiera is fine, I've been watching over her," Dai said.

"I need to go back," Tigress said again. "I can't just abandon her."

"We can send you back, but it'll be painful," Dai warned. "Your body was badly damaged in the explosion."

"I don't care! I can't abandon my daughter!" Tigress said.

"Okay," Dai said. "Lay back down and close your eyes, when you open them again, you'll be back in China."

Tigress did as she was told and laid down, closing her eyes. True to Dai's word she awoke in great pain on the shore near the dry dock, she gasped at the sudden pain in her body and sat up, taking in her surroundings, she saw the pier partly sunken into the sea, some parts of it were still on fire.

Tigress slowly and painfully got to her feet when a thought hit her, she had no idea where the others had gone after the ambush. Slowly, painfully Tigress limped away from the burning pier.

She walked for what felt like hours, searching for Dega, Kiera, and Kiro. She was starting to give up when the smell of a campfire reached her, she followed it until she stumbled across an abandoned campsite, it was recent, only a few hours old at the most.

Tigress examined the surrounding area and found some bloodied bandages, and some footsteps retreating further away, one set seemed to be deeper, like he or she was carrying something heavy, like another person.

Tigress followed the footprints until she came across another campsite about a mile from the last, by now the sun had fully set.

Kiera was the first to notice her mother standing on the fringe of the campsite.

"Mom?" she asked.

Tigress slowly stepped into the fire light, leaning against a tree.

"MOM!" Kiera said loudly standing up, rushing over to her, hugging her.

"OW, ow, ow!" Tigress yelled.

"Sorry," Kiera said letting go. "We thought for sure you had died in the explosion."

Tigress looked at Kiera and saw the bandage wrapped around her face.

"What happened to you?" She asked.

"Lupa, she threw hot ashes at my face during a fight," Kiera said.

Tigress looked at Kiro who was sitting near a small fire in a reclined position, one of his legs was wrapped in a heavier bandage.

"What happened to your leg?" Tigress asked.

"It was broken in the explosion," Kiro said. "I can't walk."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tigress said. "Can you summon a rocket cart so we can get out of here?"

"Sorry, no," Kiro said shaking his head. "I used the last of the charge to create that shield."

To demonstrate Kiro pulled out one of his staffs and tried to ignite it, nothing happened.

"You could still use them as clubs," Dega suggested taking one of the staffs, proceeding to hit Kiera with it.

"Ow!" Kiera yelped snatching the staff from Dega, hitting him hard upside the head with it.

"YEOW!" Dega yelled rubbing his head. "You hit me way harder."

"Effective though," Kiera commented.

"I can't believe we fell into Kai's trap, _AGAIN!"_ Tigress said after a moment. "He set us up, knew we'd try to destroy those ships."

"At least we made it out alive," Kiera said.

"Not everyone made it," Kiro said talking about Lupa.

"I'm sorry about Lupa," Kiera said. "Is it possible she could have survived the inferno?"

"It's possible, I guess," Kiro said. "But I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not."

"Why wouldn't it be a good thing she survived?" Tigress asked.

* * *

-With Kai-

"How could you let them escape!?" He yelled at Lupa, making her flinch back. "You had Kiera, Zina said you hesitated!"

"I'm sorry, Master, it won't happen again," Lupa said.

"I'm beginning to wonder where your loyalties truly lie," Kai said.

"With you, Master," Lupa said.

Kai frowned at the tiger-lion in front of him, Lupa shifted nervously in place under his gaze

"Go prepare for the invasion of Ban-Shi City and the attack on the Kung Fu headquarters," Kai said.

"Yes, Master," Lupa said leaving the Palace.

Once she was gone Kai called Zina over.

"Kill her," He ordered the assassin.

Zina hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Yes…Sir," She said before leaving.

Zina followed Lupa outside, she was suddenly having second thoughts about killing the Tiger-Lion, she shook the thoughts from her head. She'd do it in Ban-Shi City, in the Kung Fu Headquarters.

* * *

-Back with the Heroes-

"I bet Kai's next target will be Ban-Shi City and the Kung Fu Headquarters," Kiro said.

"It's not terribly far from here, either," Kiera said. "One or two days walk."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Dega asked, quickly getting to his feet.

"Can you walk that far?" Tigress asked Kiro.

"Do I have a choice?" Kiro asked wincing as Tigress lifted him up.

"Not really, no," Tigress said lifting and holding her brother upright.

After two days of travel, Ban-Shi City came into view, they had arrived ahead of Kai's forces.

"Looks like we got here ahead of Kai and his army," Tigress said. "For once."

"We should take the extra time to rest and recuperate," Kiera suggested

"Good idea," Tigress said. "We can stay at the Headquarters."


	21. First Test

First Test

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

I'm trying to make the battle scenes a bit more realistic, and with that comes a bit more blood, so it's gonna get bloody the next few chapters.

* * *

Kiera saw Kai's army in the distance, advancing toward the City. This was it, her first real test as the new Dragon Warrior. She looked at the advancing Army and exhaled heavily. She looked at her mother, Tigress waiting stoically next to her.

"Were you nervous before you first battle?" She asked

Truth be told Tigress hadn't thought about that night in many years. Old buried memories suddenly flooded her mind.

"No," She said. "Truthfully, I was terrified, the Army your father and I were facing was ten times this one, and I was only fifteen at the time, still a student."

Kiera had trouble picturing her mother being afraid of anything. She nervously adjusted the chest piece of her borrowed armor, it was sized for a male, and despite the clothing, she wore under it, didn't fit her correctly. If she needed to, she'd ditch it and rely on the shield on her back.

The Army marched closer and closer, then charged at the defenders.

"Shield wall!" Tigress yelled.

The attacking army slammed into the shield wall full force but the line held. Soldiers behind the shield wall stabbed at the attackers with spears, others like Kiera sliced at their feet with their swords.

The attackers advance was halted, the defenders began to push them back, away from the City gates.

"Charge!" Tigress yelled.

Kiera yelled and charged forward alone with the army, the two sides collided. Kiera's katana cut down soldier after soldier.

As the day passed, two sides clashed, and the battle wore on Kiera's armor became more than uncomfortable, she had already abandoned her helmet after taking a blow to the head. It hadn't been a serious wound, but now blood mixed with sweat was running down her face, into her eyes impairing her vision.

Eventually, Kiera was forced to admit she needed to fix her dented armor, she was having trouble breathing properly. She left the battlefield and returned to the city; where she was greeted by a battlefield doctor.

"My head is bleeding, and I'm having trouble breathing," She said practically dropping to the floor.

The Doctor rushed over and examined the laceration on her head and wrapped a bandage around it, the removed Kiera's chest piece. Kiera gasped, finally being able to breathe properly again.

"Stay here for a while and try to catch your breath before going back out there," The Doctor told her before rushing off to aid other wounded soldiers.

After a few moments, Kiera stood up and left the medical tent, she felt like she could rejoin the battle now. She glanced down at her armor, her eyes widening it was in much worse shape than she had thought, it had various dents and scratches all over it.

"I shouldn't even be alive after all that," She thought.

Her chest still hurt slightly when she breathed, but she needed to return to the battlefield. Fighting wearing only her chest coverings wasn't ideal, but there wasn't time to find replacement armor. She'd just have to rely on her shield for extra protection.

Kiera rejoined the battle as the defending army was falling back to the secondary defensive positions.

"Where did you go? What happened to your head? And where's your armor?" Her mother asked when she saw Kiera.

"Long story," Kiera said pulling the shield off her back, not a moment too soon as an arrow impacted it sticking in the shield. Kiera broke the shaft off and tossed it aside as cannons behind them fired over their heads at Kai's advancing troops.

Kiera winced and closed her eyes as she saw a cannon ball bounce through Kai's troops taking off limbs and heads as it went.

" _Here we go,"_ She thought drawing her sword again for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

Kiera quickly raised her shield and caught the ax on it, she smirked as the ax got caught in her shield. Kiera stabbed the soldier in the chest with her father's Katana, pulled it out and decapitated him.

Kiera removed the ax from her shield and blocked another strike from a mace, she hit the soldier with her shield making him stagger backward and sliced him across the chest.

Kiera stood there for a moment panting, her shield arm was growing more and more tired as the day went on. She had no idea how long the battle had lasted, but the sun was starting to disappear behind the horizon. She saw an archer taking aim at her and raised her shield as he loosed the arrow.

The arrow hit her shield, penetrating it, the arrow head missing her arm by less than an inch, making Kiera stagger from the force of the impact. Before the archer could take another shot, Dega took care of him.

"Thanks," Kiera said before Dega dove back into the fray.

* * *

-With Tigress-

Tigress had found Zina on the battlefield and was fighting her, and she was losing.

"The Hardcore, stoic Master Tigress, you've gotten soft," Zina taunted as Tigress picked herself up off the ground again.

"I…have not…gotten…soft," Tigress seethed getting into her fighting stance once more.

"Is that why you're already out of breath? No wonder Dai left you," Zina said.

"RAH!"

"There we go! Let's see what you've got tiger," Zina said fighting off the enraged Tigress.

"Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me already!" Zina taunted blocking all of Tigress's attacks, grabbing her arms, shoving her backward.

Tigress stumbled backward and fell in the mud, sliding a little.

Zina sauntered over to Tigress, kneeled down, and began searching her pockets.

"I'll take that," She said taking the Restoration Potion before running off.

"No," Tigress said trying to get to her feet, to chase after Zina but falling in the mud again.

"Zina took the Restoration Potion!" She said to Kiro when she saw him.

"What?!" Kiro asked over the sound of the battle.

"Zina took the...oh forget it!" Tigress said as four soldiers ganged up on her.

Kiro looked away from Tigress and saw Kiera in trouble fighting a Jaguar, he saw he shield break and heard her cry.

* * *

-With Kiera-

Another soldier, a Jaguar with iron armor and large war ax appeared in front of Kiera and swung it at her. Kiera quickly raised her shield to block the strike, the large ax hit her shield, the force of it broke her shield and dislocated her arm. Kiera cried out and nearly fell over backward, she saw the Jaguar raise the ax to finish her off, she was done, she knew it. With a yell, Kiro came out of nowhere, the ax struck the side of his armor, knocking the white tiger to the ground.

The Jaguar laughed hefting his large ax as he stood over the tiger master.

Kiro rolled over gripping his side, looking at the Jaguar towering over him.

His staffs having lost their charge, Kiro had been using a pair of swords, he got up swinging a sword at the Jaguars legs, cutting one off at the knee, the Jaguar fell over backward, and Kiro thrust his sword into his chest.

He pulled it out and turned to Kiera her arm hanging limply at her side.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"My arm is dislocated," Kiera answered him, "I can't move it."

"They're falling back!" A voice yelled out making Kiera and Kiro both turn around to see the remains of Kai's army actually retreating.

"Did we win?" Kiera asked Kiro as cheers broke out among the defending soldiers.

"For the moment it seems that way," Kiro said. "Fall back to the city!"

Kiro helped Kiera walk back to the defensive wall and to the hospital tent.

* * *

-With Kiera-

After the Heroes had retreated into Ban-Shi City for the night for once though their morale was high, they had given Kai's forces a bloody nose today while defending the City, he had lost hundreds of soldiers attempting to take the City.

Exhausted from battle, Kiera collapsed on her bed and fell asleep before she knew it.

She was still sleeping when a figure dressed in dark clothing opened her window, slipped inside her room and approached her as she slept.

Kiera awoke suddenly to a paw covering her mouth, she tried to yell, but it was too muffled to be heard.

"Shh!" The figure said. "I'm going to let go, do not scream."

Kiera nodded, terrified.

The figure removed its paw and pulled its mask off revealing none other than Zina herself.

"Zina!" Kiera hissed. "You have an awful lot of nerve showing up here,"

"Relax kid, I'm not here to kill anyone, if I were you wouldn't know about it until it was too late," Zina said in a hushed voice.

"What are you doing here then?" Kiera asked.

"I'm returning this," Zina said holding out the Restoration potion to Kiera.

"Why?" Kiera asked frowning.

Zina paused by the window for a moment. "I owed your father one last favor," She finally said over her shoulder before leaving the way she came.

Kiera sat there on her bed for a moment before getting up, rushing into the hallway, to her mother's room and banging on the door.

"Mom! Wake Up!" She said loudly.

"What is it?" Tigress asked opening the door, seeing the restoration potion in Kiera's hand.


	22. Sister

Sister

I don't own Kung Fu Panda

Sorry for the long delay between chapters I wasn't satisfied with this chapter and kept having to rewrite it about four or five times.

* * *

"Where did you get that?" Tigress asked seeing the potion in Kiera's hand. The last time she had seen it, Zina had stolen it from her.

"Does it matter?" Kiera asked her. "We can save Lupa."

"No, I guess not," Tigress said taking the vial from Kiera's hand. "We'd better hurry though."

Tigress and Kiera rushed to the hospital where Kiro was arguing with the hospital staff about Lupa's body.

"Out of the way!" Tigress said loudly shoving them all aside, going to Lupa's bedside.

"What are you…?" Kiro asked as Tigress uncorked the vial and poured the liquid down Lupa's throat.

"Wait for it…" Kiera said.

Lupa however, remained as still as ever on the hospital bed.

"Maybe we were too late," Kiera said after a moment.

A second later Lupa gasped loudly and began coughing on the bed.

"Lupa!" Kiro exclaimed rushing forward, hugging his daughter. "You're back!" He said tears filling his eyes.

"Did I *cough* go some *cough* where?" Lupa asked between coughing fits, looking around, seeing she was in a hospital.

"What happened?" She asked laying back in the bed.

"You don't remember Lupa?" Kiro asked.

Lupa slowly shook her head at him. "No, the last thing I remember was drinking some tea, Kai gave me. Then, I had this horrible nightmare, I attacked everyone, I nearly killed Dega and Kiera."

Tigress and Kiro looked at each other.

"Lupa," Kiera said. "That wasn't a nightmare, it really happened."

"No, it can't be," Lupa said. "I would never…"

Kiera twisted around to show Lupa the scar on the side of her abdomen Lupa had given her during their fight back in the Valley of Peace.

"You did that with a throwing knife," Kiera explained.

"You knocked Dega down the stairs and nearly killed him with his own swords," Kiro added.

"No! I wouldn't!" Lupa cried. "I would never!"

"Lupa, it's true," Tigress said.

"I am so sorry," Lupa said sobbing. "I never wanted to hurt anyone."

"It's okay Lupa, it's not your fault," Kiro said comforting his daughter.

The group had no idea Zina was watching them disguised as a nurse.

" _I need to inform Kai,"_ She thought.

* * *

-With Kai-

Zina entered Kai's command tent to see the young tiger looking over a map of his conquest of China.

"Lupa survived," Zina informed him.

"Damn it!" Kai yelled slamming his fist on the table, knocking the map markers over. "She was shot in the chest, how could she possibly survive!?" He said turning around.

"Unless you're losing your touch," He said walking up to, standing right in front of Zina.

"I killed her like you ordered," Zina replied. "It's not my fault she survived."

"You should have shot her in the head!" Kai growled. "Now, because of your incompetence, I have to find an assassin to finish the job."

"I can do it," Zina said. "Just let me…"

"No!" Kai barked turning back around. "You've proven that your nothing but a dried up shell of the assassin you used to be."

Zina frowned and growled at him, her hand reached for one of her throwing daggers.

"Leave my sight," Kai said turning his attention back to the map.

Zina's growl deepened becoming more audible "Yes…Master," She seethed before storming out of the tent.

-Undisclosed location-

Kai entered a seedy-looking tavern, he looked around and saw a tiger girl about twenty-three or twenty-four years old sitting at a table, it was the girl he was looking for sitting at a table arm-wrestling another costumer for drinks.

Once he had been beaten, Kai sat down across from the girl keeping his hood up.

"You are a difficult girl to find," He said to her. "I've heard of your talents, I have a business proposition for you." He added setting a sizable coin purse on the table.

"There will be more upon completion of the job," Kai added.

"Keep talking," The girl across from him said.

"I need you to kill someone, Kai said.

The girl raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm a mercenary, not an assassin," the girl told him.

"Are you saying you won't do it?" Kai asked.

"Who am I supposed to be killing?" The girl asked.

"Lupa Takimuro," Kai said.

"Why what did she do? You catch her in bed with someone else or something?" The girl asked a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Hardly, she has sensitive information that could prove…problimatic for my operation," Kai said.

The girl looked at the large coin purse resting on the table between them, there was probably enough money to buy a house in there.

"Fine, I'll do it," She said taking the money.

"Good, meet me here, I'll give you the rest of the information," Kai said leaving a map on the table before standing up, leaving the tavern.

Kya, the girl in question, looked at the map. The location marked on the map was near the Capitol City of China. She wondered just what she had gotten herself into this time. She simply shrugged and left a minute later and began making her way to the capital city. It wasn't terribly far, provided she didn't run into trouble on the road she should be there by morning.

* * *

-Kai's Camp-

Kya reached her destination by mid-morning, when she saw it she gasped slightly, it was a massive military camp, with soldiers walking around armed with muskets, massive siege weapons, battering rams.

Again, she wondered what she had gotten herself into. How could an army of this size have been assembled so close to the Capitol without the Masters and Dragon Warrior knowing about it?

Kya rested her hand on the pommel of her sword and slowly made her way through the camp to a large tent with a couple guards standing outside.

"The Grand Master is waiting for you inside," One said holding the tent flap open for her.

" _Grand Master?"_ Kya wondered heading inside. The only Grand Master she knew was Master Nakamura, her step-father.

Kya entered the tent and saw the same young tiger looking over a map of China on a table, this time without his hood.

"I'm glad you made it, the roads can be treacherous these days, bandits are everywhere," He said when he saw Kya.

"I'm here, so what exactly do you want me to do?" Kya asked.

"Straight to the point, I like that," Kai said.

"Your target, Lupa Takimuro is in the Cities hospital, your job is to sneak in and kill her," Kai said. "She's in room 12; she'll likely be guarded."

"Getting in won't be a problem," Kya assured him. "Getting out again, however…"

"I'll leave those details to you, if you have to carve your way out with a sword then fine, I don't care," Kai said. "If you can wound any of the Masters on the way out, I'll give you a bonus."

Kya chewed her bottom lip, she had definitely gotten herself into something bad this time.

"Is that a problem?" Kai asked breaking the long silence.

"No, no problem," Kya stated.

"Good, now get to it, time is wasting, the longer we wait, the higher the chance Lupa will reveal my plans," Kai said.

Kya nodded and left the tent, nearly bumping into a black tigress.

"Sorry, I…" Zina started to say, Her eyes widened, she gasped slightly when she recognized the girl as Kiera's half-sister Kya.

How had Kai found her? Did she even know what she was getting herself into? Before Zina could say anything though, the girl had gone.

* * *

Finally! I get to introduce Kiera's sister Kya, I was supposed to introduce her at the start of the story but totally forgot about her. Better late then never I suppose. I have a picture of her on my DeviantArt page.


	23. The Whole World

The whole world

Nope, still don't own Kung Fu Panda

I apologize for the long delay between chapters; I couldn't seem to find the motivation to write, writer's block I guess now that that's over we can continue

* * *

Kiera looked out over the battlefield, the army facing them was massive. She recognized the banners of several warlords from across China including the Mongols. There had to be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of soldiers out there, Kiera couldn't tell there were so many.

How had Kai rallied so many to his cause without anyone finding out? How had he gotten the support of the Mongols?

Kiera felt the confidence drain out of her upon seeing the massive siege engines Kai had brought in. Catapults, Battering rams, Ballistas, Siege mortars, Trebuchets Kiera, had never seen that used a large counterweight to throw massive projectiles, and cannons.

To her, it looked like the whole world had shown up to kill her, and her friends now she knew how her father had felt just before his first large-scale battle. How where they supposed to win this? Kiera looked to her mother next to her for encouragement, but she seemed just as worried as Kiera did.

"We just have to hold them off until the Samurai gets here," Kiro said pulling out his staff, sparking it.

Kiera looked sideways at the tiger Master

Kai looked at the Capitol City in front of his army and smiled.

"FIRE!" He yelled pointing at the City.

The Catapults flung flaming projectiles at the wall.

Back in the City Kiera looked to the sky and saw the flaming projectiles flying towards them.

"Scatter!" She yelled before leaping off the wall, to the ground below. She hit the ground and rolled onto her back in time to see flaming projectiles hit the wall right where she had been standing mere moments before.

"Put those fires out!" She shouted, to some soldiers, getting to her feet.

The Catapult was old technology, Kai used it mainly for its fear factor and to hurl flaming debris at the enemy and start fires from afar.

Kiera was more worried about the Siege mortars that could fire explosive cannon balls.

"Defend the wall!" Kiera shouted running back up. "Dega! Help me keep them off the wall!"

"Right!" Dega said running after Kiera.

Back on top of the wall, Kiera could see the massive battering ram slowly advancing towards them. She growled in frustration; they had to stop it before it reached the gates.

"Kiro!" Kiera shouted to get the other Tiger's attention.

Kiro kicked an enemy off the ladder he was using to ascend the wall and looked at Kiera.

"Take care of that battering ram, if it reaches the gate, were finished," Kiera said.

Kiro looked at the large battering ram and nodded, before leaping off the wall.

Kiera turned her attention back to the soldiers ascending the ladders.

"Well hello there," Dega said to one before hitting him in the face with the pommel of his sword, knocking him down the ladder to the ground. "And stay out!" He said pushing the ladder over.

Kai watched Kiro tearing through the soldiers escorting the battering ram and growled to himself. They were putting up a stronger fight than he had anticipated. No matter, sheer numbers would soon overwhelm them.

"Zina! Take care of Kiro!" He ordered.

"Gladly," The tiger assassin said before running off.

"Kya, find a way into the city and open the gate so our soldiers can get inside,"

"Yes Master," Kya said running off as well.

Kiera pushed an armored soldier off the wall, she watched as he fell to his death below, she had no remorse for him, he had nearly killed her _and_ Dega a couple of times, his steel armor had made him almost invincible, _almost_.

Kiera staggered away, a hand on her side and collapsed against Dega.

"I'm okay," She said straightening back up.

"Like hell you are, you need to rest," Dega said setting her against the wall.

"No," Kiera said stubbornly getting back to her feet, only to have Dega push her back down again.

"Just rest for a moment, and catch your breath," Dega told her.

"I'm fine," Kiera said a moment, later standing up.

She glanced out at Kai's army.

"It feels like the whole world has shown up to kill us," Kiera remarked.

"Not the _whole_ world, just these guys," Dega pointed out.

Zina kicked Kiro off the top of the battering ram, he landed hard on his back and gasped. Zina dropped down near him, falling perfectly, she walked over to him and pointed her sword at his face.

"Give up yet?" She asked.

"No," Kiro said spitting blood on Zina's boot, before pulling his emergency dagger out, driving it into her calf muscle.

Zina yelled in anger and backed off, falling to a knee.

"Dai taught me that one," Kiro said standing up, collecting his battered staffs.

Zina tried to stand but fell to her knees again.

"Effective, don't you think," Kiro said.

Zina snarled and lunged at him swinging her sword at his neck, but Kiro was just out of reach, she fell into the mud.

Kiro chuckled at her lying in the mud.

Zina growled and threw one of her daggers at Kiro, it missed and hit the battering ram behind him.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Zina yelled trying to stand up once more but falling to the ground again.

"Give it up Zina," Kiro said, "You're never going to be able to beat me."

"What about me?"

Kiro whirled around and looked up to see Kya standing on top of the battering ram, broadsword in hand.

Kya jumped down from the battering ram and pointed her sword at Kiro.

"You got lucky last time, this time there's no one here to save you," Kya said.

"We'll see," Kiro said sparking his staff, only to have the weapon fizzle out and go dead from the damage it had suffered.

Kiro chuckled nervously looking at the weapon in his hand "Hang on, give me a sec…," he said before hitting the end of it on the ground, causing the staff to spark to life finally.

"There we go!" He exclaimed.

Kya yelled at him and charged forward swinging her broadsword in an upward arc.

Kiro blocked it with his staff, the weapon flickered but remained active. Kiro summoned a shield as Kya swung her sword sideways at him. The sword hit the shield and bounced off.

"Coward!" She snarled at him. "Face me like a _real_ warrior!"

*Kya disdains the use magic and or chi, she thinks it is cheating and dishonorable*

"You want a real fight? I'll give you one!" Kiro said back dissipating the shield.

-Back at the wall-

Kiera ducked as a large flaming boulder flew over her head and crashed into the courtyard starting numerous fires.

"Put those fires out, quickly!" She yelled.

"We can't! I won't go out!" A soldier yelled throwing a bucket of water on the fire with no effect.

"Greek fire," Kiera muttered to herself.

"Take whatever is burning and throw it back over the wall!" Kiera said.

Another boulder crashed into the wall, taking out a large chunk of it. Everyone in the courtyard froze, Kiera tensed up and waited, watching the breach. A moment later enemy soldiers began streaming through the hole.

"Defend the courtyard!" Kiera yelled jumping down from the wall and rushing forward, to meet the enemy soldiers.

She twisted out of the way of a halberd to avoid being stabbed by its spike. She was outclassed here, and she knew it. The Halberd had a much further reach than her Katana did.

The soldier stabbed at her again, this time when Kiera twisted, she grabbed the weapon and tore it from the soldier's hands, she tossed the weapon aside and cut the soldier down with her katana.

"Push them back!" Kiera yelled

-Back with Kiro-

Despite the fact he was fighting Kya near the battering ram, it continued to be pushed closer and closer to the gate by Kai's soldiers. He quickly summoned up a strong wind with his staff and blew the enemy soldiers away from the ram, knocking them all over.

Kya hissed at him

"Heretic!" She shouted.

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say," Kiro said back to her.

Tigress watched from a distance as Kiro and Kya collided again, Kya's sword reverberated against Kiro's summoned shield, Kya hit him under the chin with the pommel of her sword, Kiro stumbled back, slipping in the mud.

"Kiro!" Tigress yelled, punching a soldier near her, rushing toward him. Gods, she wasn't going to make it! Tigress put on an extra burst of speed, Kya saw her coming at the last moment and turned towards her, Tigress felt her sword pierce her abdomen before she collapsed to the ground.

"Tigress!" Kiro yelled as she fell. "No!"

Tigress lay on the ground, clutching her arms over her stomach, Kya stood over her, a stunned look on her face.

"I'm gonna kill you," Kiro growled. "I…"

Kiro was cut off by an arrow hitting his shoulder, it hit him with enough force to knock him off his feet, the arrowhead protruding from his back.

"Ow…"

"DAD!" Dega yelled seeing his father fall from his position on the wall.

On the ground in the courtyard, Kiera heard Dega's yell and turned to look up at him just as he jumped down off the wall.

"Dega, no!" Kiera yelled cutting down an enemy soldier, as Dega disappeared from view.

"Push them back!" Kiera yelled.

She dashed toward the breach in the wall and started to climb out.

" _Where was Jiro with the Samurai? He should have been here by now,"_ She wondered.

Kiera climbed up out of the hole in the wall and looked over the battlefield, and saw utter chaos unfolding in front of her. Kai's army was battling the remnants of the Imperial military, they were slowly losing ground. It would only be a matter of time before Kai's forces breached the wall.

She caught a glimpse of Dega running towards the giant battering ram, which would soon be close enough to breach the gate any moment now, and chased after him.

She caught up with him to see both Tigress and Kiro lying on the ground.

"DAD!" Dega yelled dropping to his knees next to his father.

"I just got the wind knocked outta me; I'm fine," Kiro mumbled.

"Mom!" Kiera said dropping down next to her mother.

Kiera's ear twitched, she threw herself backward just as Kya's sword cut through the air where she had been crouched a second before. She fell onto her back, propped up on her elbows, she looked up at Kya.

Thunder sounded, confusing Kiera, it was a perfectly clear day. There wasn't a storm cloud in sight. An electric shock hit Kya, knocking her off her feet, throwing her back several yards.

"What the…?" Kiera wondered looking around.

Her eyes fell on a familiar face, Saber's.

"Saber!" Kiera exclaimed seeing the sabertooth.

Kya meanwhile had recovered from the hit and slowly stood up with the help of her sword.

"Who on earth are you supposed to be?" She asked hefting her sword.

"I'm Saber," Saber said introducing himself while drawing his own sword.

Kya snarled at him, ready to attack.

The sound of a war horn sounded, making them all turn to where the sound had come from. Kiera smiled a little when she saw a line of Samurai warriors in the distance; it appeared her uncle had finally arrived with his Samurai.

* * *

Alas, the end is finally in sight for our Heroes. Will they prevail? Or will they fall to the pages of history?


End file.
